James 2:10-11 “Whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.”

As people deal with each other not all sins or crimes are the same, and it is proper that we recognize that. Driving over the speed limit, shoplifting, and murder are all against the law. But they don’t affect my neighbor the same.

Speeding creates risk. It may put my neighbor’s life in danger. But until there has been a collision, no one is actually harmed, so the penalty is relatively mild, usually just a fine.

Shoplifting takes money out of other people’s pockets–the store owner, perhaps the employees he may struggle to pay, even the other customers who have to pay more for their purchases to make up for what has been stolen. It interferes with my neighbor’s daily bread. The impact is greater, so the punishment is more severe: bigger fines and perhaps time in jail.

Murder, of course, makes the ultimate impact on the victim’s life. Society responds by taking the murderer’s life away, either literally with the death penalty, or practically by sending them to prison for life. We agree with these distinctions between crimes and their punishments. They intuitively feel right to us.

As we deal with God, all our sins or crimes are the same. There is no difference in their impact on him. If we steal, God has lost nothing. If we murder, it’s not his life we take. James compares murder and adultery. The Lord isn’t losing anything personally either way.

Or perhaps we should say he is losing the same thing in each case. The creatures he made for himself are showing him disrespect. They are replacing him in their lives with their own desires and choices. They are living in defiance of his law. That is why to God every sin is the same, from selfish thoughts to vulgar slips of the tongue to great crimes and atrocities.

That is what James wants us to remember about the problem with playing favorites. We might be tempted to downplay this sort of thing. No one is physically hurt, after all, just their feelings. No one goes hungry as a result. No one’s life is shortened.

But the Lord is fully offended just the same. His children have been mistreated. His law has been defied. His honor has been disregarded. It creates the same wedge between us and him as every other sin. Whether we think of playing favorites as a big sin or a little one, it is a problem for our relationship with him, a problem calling for our repentance and requiring his grace.

Thankfully, God applies his grace to us with the same equal consideration with which he applies his law. No one is favored or excluded over the nature or number of their sins. As lawbreakers we all have equal access to his pardon. Take it.