Student Devotional Week 31: "Not What You Expect: Parable of The Vineyard Workers"

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: Romans 2:11: "Romans 2:11 (New International Version)
"For God does not show favoritism."

Does God show favortism? In the old testament God's chosen people were the Hebrew people, which we find became a huge stumbling block for early Christians in accepting non-jewish or gentile people into the faith. Peter and the Apostle Paul were huge proponents of accepting gentiles into the faith and for that stand they received a lot of flack from early Christian leaders.
In the Gospel of Matthew 20:1-16, we find the parable of the vineyard workers. The short summary of the parable goes that as the labor hands continued to get hired the day grew later and later and at the end of the day they were all paid the same. I would tell you that it is the same with those who labor for the faith all of their lives and those who accept Christ at the last possible moment like the thief on the cross, we are all treated the same when it comes to our eternal reward. The same could be said of those of different race, sex, culture, etc. we are all given the same treatment from our heavenly father and thank the Lord we are not judged by our own merits because the Bible says the wages of sin is death, eternal serparation from God.
How about you, do you show favoritism towards different types of people? How do you think God would have us look at others different than us?