Malachi 2:9-10

"Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.
Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?"
Malachi 2:9-10


This is interesting, and something that I think that we do a lot.  We are partial in the way that we interpret God's laws.  Often we forget that everyone in the world is part of the plan, and a child of God.  We read or watch news stories which are obviously biased against one group or another, and everyone accepts it because it's okay to hate "those people" that are nothing like us.  ... Except of course, it isn't okay at all.  Maybe they are in a different country, and not saying patriotism is bad... it is good to be dedicated to where we live and try to make it better.  But if we let nationalism blind us to the unity of all people, then we're losing part of what God is trying to say.  Similarly, people of other religions, people of other races, and people who sin in specific ways that we don't like... even those people are our brothers and sisters, and part of God's plan and laws.  When God asks us to love our neighbors, we're tempted to interpret as just our families, or just our next-door neighbors, but God teaches us very clearly that he means everyone.
Today, let's work on being impartial.  It's tough.  We're all bad at it in different ways... but perhaps we can look at the news story a little differently today.  We can look at the people we interact with a little differently.  If we think of a group today that we "just hate" ... maybe we can work on trying to understand their challenges a little better and imagine how God would help them if he were here.  He loves us all... let's work on loving each other, no matter how disparate.