Looking Beyond Externals - Drawing Near - John MacArthur

"My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism" (James 2:1).
Your true worth is based on the value of your soul, not on external considerations.

Jesus is "our glorious Lord" (James 2:1)—the Sovereign One who rules over all His creation, and the One in whom the fullness of God's glory is revealed. John said, "The Word [Jesus] became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Paul said, "In Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Col. 2:9).

As God, Jesus shares the impartiality of the Father. He knows that a person's worth is based on the value of his soul, not on external considerations. That's why He always looks on the heart and never judges on externals alone.

That was evident in the way Jesus dealt with sinners when He was still on earth. He neve