This form of idolatry is one we can fall into without even realizing it… It is so easy to put an extraordinary amount of trust in the words of people, especially when those men or women claim to be speaking on God’s behalf. We can even begin to exalt these men or women above where scripture does, becoming their disciples instead of disciples of Christ:

"Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11  For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. 12  Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Cephas," and "I of Christ." 13  Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Corinthians 1:10-13).

Do you see the point that Paul is making here? It seems that these brethren were lifting up one teacher while looking down on others who were lifting up another teacher, both of whom were saying they were disciples of. Paul’s questions show that there was only One who was worthy of such trust and devotion… the One who was crucified for them. Paul, Apollos, Peter, and any other man was not crucified for us. We need to make sure that only One has our undivided trust and devotion: Jesus Christ. Paul continues talking about this subject in chapter 3:

"For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not mere men? 5  What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6  I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7  So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth" (1 Corinthians 3:4-7).

Paul is showing them here that they as men are merely servants of the Lord; servants of God. Paul and Apollos only taught what they were given by God, so it was God that they needed to trust in. It was only Him to which they belong. He has given them the growth they have had to this point, and as Paul says in verse 9, “they (and we) are God’s building.” And then in chapter 6, He goes on to say that each one of us are temples of the Holy Spirit, that we belong to God and not even to ourselves. We need to see this regarding ourselves. We should only claim, “I am of Christ.” Any other man or teacher must have what they say compared to the word of God before we trust it to be from God.

With this said, have we ever been guilty as the Corinthians have in our affections towards our preachers or teachers? It is sad to say that there are many who have been guilty of this amongst God’s people. An eldership asks a preacher to move on to another work and what ends up happening too often? Those who loved and adored that preacher leave, causing a split in the church. This is “preacher idolatry.”

Some of us also may be guilty of idolizing a preacher or teacher if we just blindly believe what they say without ever comparing what they say to scripture from the truth by what a preacher or teacher says, then we are following and serving that man in the place of God. We are taking his words above God’s! We must be careful of this. Just because someone claims to be speaking on God’s behalf from scripture doesn’t make it true. We can make mistakes also. Whether it is one of our dear friends or brothers in Christ, or even your parents teaching you, your devotion must be first and foremost to Jesus Christ. What any man or woman teaches is subject to being tested and compared to scripture. spirits to make sure they are of God (1 John 4:1). We must test all things and hold fast to that which is good (1 Thess. 5:21).

You may have seen this title and thought to yourself, "How in the world can spiritual activities become an idol?" There are two main points I would like to make about how even spiritual activities can become an idol.

1. ARE WE SEEKING SPIRITUAL ACTIVITIES INSTEAD OF GOD?

First, we can be so busy even with spiritual activities that we forget that we are supposed to be as individuals, seeking the Lord and drawing near to Him through them, and all of the activities end up becoming an end in and of themselves. Our goal as Christians should be not to merely attend as many spiritual things that we can, but to make sure that no matter what it is we are doing that we are drawing near to God. Just because we are attending spiritual activities; all of the studies, singings, worship services, gospel meetings, etc. that we can does NOT mean that we are right with God. This is not necessarily the case. You can go to all of these faithfully and still not be right with God. Spiritual activities cannot replace much weightier spiritual activities, such as mercy, faithfulness, and love. Spiritual activities cannot replace our own personal growth and fruitfulness for the Lord. Attending all of these things cannot replace God’s command for each of us to serve one another. No matter how much of these things we do, they cannot make up for our sin and what we are neglecting to do in our service to God. Are we seeking spiritual activities or are we seeking God?

2. ARE OUR MOTIVATIONS RIGHT?

We need our motivations to be right in what we do. If we are doing all of these “spiritual” things with the wrong motivation, we are not being spiritual or faithful to God in doing them.

ARE WE TRUSTING IN OUR SPIRITUAL ACTIVITIES AS THE REASON WHY I WILL BE GOING TO HEAVEN?

Also, if we are trusting in our spiritual activities to be the reason why I am going to Heaven, trusting in these things instead of God to save us, our spiritual activities are idols. Going to church, Bible studies, and singings are not the reason why I (or you) am going to Heaven. This may or may not be new information for you, but listen very closely… coming to worship services, attending studies, meetings, and singings… these things cannot and will not atone for one single sin. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can atone for and remove our sins. I think why we tend to trust in these things to be our salvation is because doing spiritual activities to make up for our sin is so much easier to do than what scripture commands: to with humility and godly sorrow repent, confess our sins, and pray. These are the things we must do if we desire the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all unrighteousness as Christians (1 John 1:7-9; Luke 13:3). We need to understand that we cannot earn God’s favor before we become Christians, and we cannot earn God’s favor after we become Christians.

ARE WE DOING SPIRITUAL THINGS IN ORDER TO BE SEEN AND HONORED BY OTHERS?
If we are doing spiritual activities to be seen by others, these things do not please God. We are not serving God, but ourselves. This is what the first 18 verses of Matthew 6 deal with. Jesus says not to do our “spiritual” things to be seen and praised by men. The Pharisees were so focused on trying to be respected and praised by men, trying to receive glory which truly belongs to God alone!  This is not spirituality at all. We are only being spiritual if we are desiring to obey God so HE can be glorified. Jesus says:

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 (NASB)

It may be so easy for us to think that our work cannot (or will not) become an idol by saying things like this:

• "I am just supporting my family with this job"
• "I am obeying the Lord in not being lazy and working with my own two hands"

These are good things to be doing. God does indeed want us to work and to be productive (2 Thessalonians 3:10), but this does not mean that your work cannot be an idol. Even if we work for these reasons, our work can still become an idol. Here are some ways in which this can happen:

First, we can begin to think that being the best accountant, engineer, computer programmer, insurance salesman, social worker, the best Bible preacher/teacher, or the best “stay at home mom” (that is work too!) is what makes me successful and that it makes me who I am. It is what defines me. We can begin to think or act like whatever work I am doing is what gives me ultimate fulfillment and purpose in life. If you are looking at your work as the thing that gives you security, meaning, and purpose in life, this is a problem. God does not want our work to be what we are living for! It may be an idol if it is!

This happens a lot in our society, even amongst the people of God (especially the men). The first question that men ask one another when they meet (this drives me crazy) is what they do for a living. We act like whatever job we have is what we find our identity in. It is what we point to in order to show how successful we are. But the truth is, your job is not what defines you. It should be viewed as a gift that the Lord has given you in order to make it easier to serve Him, His people, and your family. When someone asks me what I do for a living, I usually tell them that I am a servant of God. This is what defines who I am, and it is always a good conversation starter. Being a Christian is what makes me the employee that I need to be. It is what my life is about. The fact that I help my wife with her business or am supported to preach the gospel is not where I find my purpose or identity. Work is not what drives me. Jesus does.
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Second, there are many people, including Christians, who become addicted to their work. They are usually called workaholics. Work is their drug that helps them to escape the problems in their lives. It helps them get their mind off of the problems at home. Their job is what they feel they must excel in to be successful and satisfied with themselves or to get others to look at them with respect. So they work incredibly long hours, think about work even when at home and on vacation, and allow their health and their relationships to become strained. As with many things, society and medical professionals would call such a problem/addiction a disease when in reality it is sin. This is idolatry!

I appreciate the wisdom in Ecclesiastes 4 regarding the subject of work. The man described in that section was working his hands to the bone and never thought of stopping to ask himself WHY he was depriving himself of so much pleasure in life. He was alone. His work had become his life. It was all worthless/vanity. The same is true regarding anyone who has work as an idol. Work is vanity if it is not viewed through the lens of Biblical truth. You can be so driven. You can make work your life, but is it worth the sacrifices you make? Is it worth your family being without you while you neglect them to work 80 hour weeks? Is it worth neglecting your duties to train up your children and to meet the needs of your spouse? Is it worth losing the ability to serve in the church?

Whenever God says, "Do this," but we say, "I can't (or I won't) do it because I need to work, we are exchanging God and His truth for something of this world and making an idol. There is no justification for purposefully neglecting or rejecting what God says because of work. A man is not "providing for his household" if he gives them a paycheck but does not give them his time and the other more important things that God instructs him to do. The same goes for the wife and mother working outside of the home. If her career puts her family and God on the "back-burner"; if she is not loving and respecting her husband, not being a manager of the house, or bringing up and nurturing her children, then she also has exchanged God and His truth for her career/work.

We we need to examine ourselves to make sure we are indeed serving God and our families with our work. Are we glorifying the Lord in our work or has work become our idol?

Hundreds of thousands of people are talking about a certain news story on Facebook today, including many brothers and sisters in Christ. They are talking about a headline that reads 'Niners QB Kaepernick refuses to stand for the national anthem'. All of the responses to this story on Facebook have left me scratching my head and wondering, "Do we know how to respectfully disagree with those we disagree with?" or "Do we know how to show love to those we disagree with?" In the posts/articles that I have seen brothers and sisters in Christ share, I have seen the burning of this man's jersey, attacks on the man's character, mocking the man because of his upbringing, and accusations of being "un-American" and even "disrespecting and hating our troops"...  

Should a Christian be posting such things? Should they be showing their approval of these kind of hateful and disrespectful attitudes when they post articles and videos showing these things? I believe when Christians share these kind of posts, they are showing the world a few things:

1. They are showing that the world (not scripture) has trained them how to treat those whom they disagree with. Instead of showing tolerance (respect and patience to those whom we disagree with), they are led by the world to be quick to criticize, mock, belittle, and attack this man made in God's image for sharing his opinions and beliefs (which we do by sharing posts and articles that do so)
2. They are showing in this instance that they may have a pride for this country, it's flag, and it's national anthem that is idolatrous in nature. Our emotions can be a good indicator of how much love we have towards our place of earthly pilgrimage, and at times, our emotions can show that we have made this earthly nation a competitor to God for our hearts. (I would encourage you to read these articles on how we can make America our idol)
3. They are showing hypocrisy because they claim to be disciples but are not loving their neighbor (Kaepernick in this instance) or treating others the way they would want to be treated if someone disagrees with them. Should not love demand kindness and patience and not rudeness and irritation (1 Cor 13:4-5)? Our King, the Lord Jesus, has given us His royal law to love God and neighbor. It is a law that we will be judged by (James 2:7-13). When we fail to show compassion and love to those who we disagree (or agree) with, we are putting ourselves at odds with the law of the Great judge, and we are in need of repentance. 

We need to consider how we should respond to those whom we disagree. This should be done, not just regarding current events regarding our nation and it's celebrities. It also needs to be applied to our disagreements with our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we have a doctrinal disagreement, a difference in opinion/conscience regarding what a particular Bible passage is teaching or whether a particular practice is right or wrong, how should we respond? Should we not respond by:

• Being respectful and patient with those whom we disagree? We often are too quick to throw out statements like: "you are in sin because you believe _______", or "Your "church" is not sound because they don't believe ________", or "You are not a Christian if you agree with __________", or "You are a liberal/legalist/etc because of this belief." Instead of throwing out judgments that assume we believe someone is a lost sinner because they disagree with us, should we not leave this kind of judgment to the Lord? I am not saying there are no areas where we should not take a stand, but I am saying that we need to show caution in being so quick to condemn and judge. We may be putting ourselves at odds and into disagreement with the judgments of Christ Himself. We only know someone is lost and in sin if scripture states it to be the case, and most of our disagreements and condemning attitudes are based on things that are not as clearly defined in scripture as we would claim. 
• Check our own hearts to make sure we don't have an idolatrous level of love for our own opinions or traditions - traditions that may be only one way of submitting to the commands of Christ. Make sure we are standing on the teachings of the Apostles, not on our own opinions and traditions we are lifting up to be "Gospel truth".
• Showing love to those who are made in God's image and members of the bride of Christ? 

​I believe Romans 14 would demand these kind of responses instead of what we normally see among God's people. My prayer is that as you disagree with those who are inside or outside of the church, you will think about how you can respond in a way that best reflects the Gospel (Philippians 1:27) and shows light to this dark world (Philippians 2:15).

Grace and Peace,
​Jason

I do believe that education is one of the prevailing gods of our time. A great myth is that modern education will provide its beneficiaries with great wisdom, a secure future, as if we can secure our future by hard work. One mark of idolatry is the attitude that something we achieve or acquire will bring us lasting security, contentment, and power. This attitude is often directed toward education. If we just get enough good education, we will be able to have the life we want. We can be in charge of our own lives once we have a degree in hand, and the more advanced the degree, the better. In addition, the myth continues, we can use educational achievement to place ourselves ahead of others. Those with letters after their names are viewed by our society as the ones who are ahead; the ones who are being successful; the ones that we need to listen to, even if that means we need to not listen to what God says at times. There are some professors who, if you forget to call them “doctor”, they about have an aneurysm. You make sure you call them by their official designation which they gained by all of their education!

People are willing to make great sacrifices to gain a great education for themselves and their children. Many go into large amounts of debt to get an education; debt that at times seems to take a lifetime to pay off. Some are willing to work their way through college, making it so that all that it seems they do is either work, go to school, and do homework. Some parents are willing to sacrifice time with their families to go back to school so they can get a better job than they currently have. But at times this comes at great cost. Souls are lost because education becomes such a focus and love in our lives. We can become so distracted by the demands education place on us. We can also be indoctrinated with “knowledge” that contradicts the word of God and is based on philosophies that are ungodly. We may not be passing our children through the fire in worship to Molech, but it at times can be the case that we are in a sense “passing ourselves or our children” through the fire in worship of education and enlightenment. The fire can kill them, especially when they are not prepared for it.

Anything that the world calls “knowledge” that points us away from God or his truth is an idol. It is not truth. It is false knowledge and foolishness. Paul says that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). If we are going to submit ourselves or our children to the American educational system, we need to make sure they are ready for it. They need to have a strong foundation of Biblical truth, and they need to have their own faith in Christ and their own devotion to prayer and studying his word so that they can obey what Paul says in Colossians 2:8:

"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."

From our lesson "Respectable Sins" - Idolatry:

Whether it is a football team, a basketball team, a baseball team… or any other team (including teams our children are on), this video sure does show the kind of devotion that we can put into being a fan of their favorite sports teams. A fan… I don’t like this word at all… It is a shorter version of another word: a fanatic; which is defined as one who is completely devoted; usually in irrational ways, to a certain person or cause. Based on this definition (in my judgment), another word for 'fanatic' from the Bible would be 'idolatry.'

I remember the time before I became a Christian. So much of my life was spent watching football and other sports. I would get so into the games, so frustrated, angry, and even depressed when things did not go the way I wanted them to. Whole days and even whole weekends would be spent in front of TVs at bars and at home making sure I caught every moment. Of course, when I became a Christian, the places where I watched the games changed, and I didn’t get as angry when my teams were not doing well, but it still did affect me. I had to almost completely stop watching sports because of the kind of hold it had on my heart. Probably one of the only times I sit down and watch a whole game is when I am get together with brethren to do so. 

There is a reason why we often hear people say that they "religiously" don't miss one game their favorite team plays. Sports can quickly become a religion if we are not careful. All of the news regarding our favorite team becomes our gospel, the TV becomes our altar, the games become our "worship services", and the team becomes our object of worship. 

How devoted are to your favorite sports teams or sports figures? Has it (they) become all you want to talk about with others? Has your favorite team become what you anticipate the most during the week? Does watching them win or lose make/break your week? 

When people think of you, what do they think first? Do they think, “I know he is a republican or a democrat or a libertarian, etc.,” “I know what he or she believes about all of the hot-button political issues”? Or do they know you for what you believe and teach as a Christian? Which are you more passionate about? You can be the most committed republican or democrat. You can go out and knock doors to support your candidate? You can go onto Facebook and tell people why they should vote for a certain person. But do you do any of these things for the Lord? It is sad when it’s the case that Christians lose opportunities to teach the gospel because they are too vocal in sharing their political views so passionately with the lost. Is it really worth it to be so vocal about your political allegiances? It may be the case if we allow our political allegiances to drive people away from what we claim to be our greatest allegiance (God's kingdom), we may be showing which spiritual platform we may have a greater allegiance to: man's instead of God's. 

It is even sadder when we begin thinking and saying things that make it seem like being a Christian is synonymous with being a Republican or a Democrat, and that brethren are lost if they vote a certain way or believe a certain way politically (This is the sin of partiality, and it violates what Paul teaches in Romans 14). We can badly injure a brother or sister over saying someone is less Christian if they have a different political affiliation. No party in U.S. politics is a "Christian" party. Neither is "more Christian" in their beliefs and platform. All of the major political parties have views that are morally evil and contradict scripture. They are not FOR the kingdom of God. They are part of this world, and we need to be careful about the level of love and devotion we show towards a party or their presidential candidates. 

We need to be more concerned for souls; the souls of democrats and republicans; the souls of those who are pro-life and pro-choice, and we show a concern for the souls of these people, not by changing their views on the hot-button political issues or leading them to change their political party, but instead by obeying Christ by preaching and teaching the Gospel. Jesus did not say, “Go out into all the world and get the laws changed and change people’s political views.” He said, Go out into all the world and to preach the gospel to every creature” (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16).

And finally, do not forget, as a Christian, you only have one ultimate "political allegiance"; one leader and King that you can submit to and show love for: King Jesus. If your political affiliation leads you to compromise your devotion to your King and His party platform, then your political affiliation has become your idol.

This point may get me in trouble with some, but it can be the case that we put an idolatrous focus on the Constitution and Bill of Rights. There may be many clues, that if we se them in our lives, that we may be guilty of idolatry in this are. 

First, there are some Christians that are much more vocal about how our representatives or our President are abusing the constitution and interpreting it incorrectly than how there are so many in our country and churches that pervert scripture. Does this describe you? Are you more likely to make sure you make your opinions and complaints known about constitutional abuses than abuses of scripture on social media and in your discussions with others?

Second, there are also some Christians who I have talked to who seem more passionate and vocal to others about their man-given American rights than teaching the word of God to someone. I do believe there are many who idolize their rights so much that they become rebellious in their attitude toward their authorities and dishonor their authorities, which are BOTH sins in scripture. You may have heard a brother or sister in Christ say something along the lines of, “if the government wants to take my guns, they will have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands!” Seriously? I like to think they are joking when they say this, but at least those who I have heard say these kind of things sure do seem pretty serious. I also have seen some Christians complain about our governing authorities on Facebook, even putting what they type in all caps so everyone can know that they are yelling at their authorities about the laws they are passing that take away previous freedoms; laws which the majority of the time God does not give His opinion on in His word. My response: such attitudes displayed in these kind of comments are sinful, and they show that we often idolize our rights. It is dishonoring to your authorities and to the God who placed our authorities over us.

Some also idolize the constitution and their rights in saying that they are given by God when many of them are not even mentioned in the word of God! Now I don’t want to be misunderstood. I believe that the constitution and the Bill of Rights are great documents. I have a lot of respect for those who were involved in their creation. I would prefer that they stay exactly the way they are and be interpreted based on what our founding fathers had in mind when they were written! But let me tell you this, and this may come as a surprise to you, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights did not fall out of Heaven. They are not inspired by God. Our constitution and our “rights” are not “God-given” as so many cry out. It is a document that was created by men and, unfortunately, can be changed or done away with by men. If our leadership changed/amended, or even did away with the Bill of Rights or the constitution, what would your response be? If the government did make it a law that we could no longer own or possess firearms, how would you respond? Would you respond by saying, “You have to tear them out of my cold, dead hands?” or yell from the rooftops, “It is my God-given right to own and carry a gun?” The Biblical response (and non-idolatrous response) would be to submit to our authorities. Guns are not the only weapons we as Americans can use to defend ourselves.

Sometimes it seems that the worldview and beliefs of some Christians are based more on FOX News and conservative talk radio than they are the word of God. What is our authority? What is it that gives us our direction and hope in life? It is NOT our laws and our rights. “Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” No matter what comes of our rights and our constitution, we already have all that we need to live godly in Christ. We have our standard. We have our King. No matter what may happen with the laws of this nation, we need to be faithful to Christ. What laws our nation has or whatever our rights may be, we need to use them to serve and glorify God as lights in this world. And no matter what the situation may be in this country, we need to get the gospel out. We need to set our minds on higher things and not get so distracted and consumed by the things of this world that we give too much love to.

"You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier" (2 Timothy 2:3-4).

Usually, patriotism is viewed as a positive attribute for one to have. I do agree that it is a good thing to be loyal to the country that God has blessed us to live in. I am happy that God has given me the blessing of living here. It is ok to be “proud to be an American” in that sense. I believe we as Americans need to be thankful to God for this blessing, but we do need to be careful with the amount of love and devotion we have towards this democratic country. If we are being too devoted to it, it can become an idol. It can get to the point where we puff out our chests with pride because of how great we are, or because of the physical prosperity that the nation has gotten for itself, or the large military and defenses that our nation has. We may think that no one can beat us or mess with us or our freedoms. But when we do this, we forget that all of these things have been given to Americans by GOD and can be taken away from this nation by Him in an instant. There is no reason for us to be filled with pride and to look down on other nations. 

​Whenever we are giving precedence towards our earthly citizenship and our place of residence over our heavenly one, America the Great, or even the state that we live in, can become our idol. I am happy to be an American and to be blessed by God to live here, but this is not what I boast in and find my identity in. Being an American is not something I boast in. I will boast in the cross which makes me a citizen of a better and greater kingdom. Do you believe that we as Christians are in the greatest nation there is? Not America, but God’s holy nation and royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9)? This world is not our home. America is not where we belong. This country is not where our citizenship lies. We are pilgrims in America! Paul tells us in Philippians 3:19-20 that our citizenship is in Heaven. My devotion and love first and foremost belongs to God’s kingdom. That is where my citizenship primarily lies. If we are going to be "patriotic", should we not be patriotic towards the country of our primary citizenship? 

Which national identity do you give precedent to? Which do you give more devotion to? The Kingdom of America or the Kingdom of God? Your answer to these questions may go to show whether your "patriotism" has reached the level of idolatry. Pay attention to the things you post online and what you say to people. Often our words show which country we are more devoted to.

I received a question about the sin of partiality that went like this: “Is it showing partiality to have a preference to spend more time with certain people or groups of people (such as physical family) compared to others?”

We all have those who we may prefer to be around, or those we are more comfortable spending time with because we have more in common. We may spend more time with our physical family than we do other people. We may spend more time with families in our congregation with children the same age as ours. We may spend more time with those who have some of the same interests as ours. I do not believe this, in and of itself, is partiality. There are some scriptures in which we are commanded to show preference in some areas, which I believe do show that preferring to spend time with certain people (or groups of people) is not partiality.

For instance, in Galatians 6:10 we are told to “do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” I believe this verse is showing that we need to go out of the way more in order to do good deeds for our brothers and sisters in Christ compared to those who are in the world. If I have a choice to spend time with or to do a good work for a nonChristian or a Christian in the same exact time slot, I believe a passage like this shows that I should choose the brother or sister in Christ.

Another example of a passage that shows we should show some judgment (or preference) in who we spend time with is 1 Corinthians 15:33 where Paul says, "Bad company ruins good morals." This passage shows the danger of surrounding ourselves with those who can impact us in negative ways spiritually. The context of this passage shows that it is primarily referring to false teachers, but I believe this can be applied more broadly to anyone who can have a negative impact on our spiritual well-being. We should prefer to spend more time with and to surround ourselves with those who can help us to get to Heaven.

There are more examples I could give, but these two go to show, I believe, that there are some instances where we should, and even must, show some kind of preference in regards to company we keep, and when we do so, we are not showing the partiality that is condemned in the Bible.

But we do need to be careful though that our preferences do not turn into partiality. If our preference to spend more time with certain people got to the point where we would be completely neglecting certain groups of people (ex. those who are not in our physical family or those who are not Christians), then it can get to the point where our “preference” becomes partiality. We need, as disciples of Christ, to be willing to spend time with those who are different from us so we can "love our neighbor" (all of our neighbors) as Jesus commands. Jesus’ command to love is not just for those who we prefer to spend time with. It is for everyone!