Is It True That God Shows No Partiality?
Share
“Teacher’s Pet!”
Pretty much every student has either exclaimed this or has been a teacher’s favored pupil. Perhaps it’s because the student academically excels above others or treats the teacher with respect. Perhaps there is a preference based on looks. All are wrong, but they happen, nonetheless.
Everyone wants equal treatment and unity is broken when a person is singled out for reasons related to a subjective choice. Someone always gets hurts when favoritism is shown.
What about with God? Is He partial or is it true He shows no partiality? Our key verse to study this conundrum is Acts 10:34, where the Apostle Peter is speaking, “So Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘Truly I understand that God shows no partiality.’”
What Is the Context of This Verse?
Acts 10 begins with the account of Cornelius, a centurion and, “a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God” (Acts 10:2). An angel of God (Hebrews 13:2) came to him and told him to send to Joppa for Peter, which he quickly did (Acts 10:5-8).
Acts 10:9-20 relates visions the Lord gave Peter as he prayed on a housetop. Three times he envisioned a sheet which came down from heaven filled with all kinds of reptiles and animals and birds. A voice said to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” Peter argued he had never eaten anything unclean and the voice responded, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
After the third time, the “thing was taken back up to heaven.” As a perplexed Peter tried to make sense of the visions, Cornelius’ men arrived at the house. The Spirit told Peter the men were there and said, “Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” Peter obeyed and asked the men why they had come. They told Peter about Cornelius and that an angel had directed him to send for Peter.
In Acts 10:21-48, we read the rest of the account. Peter hosted them overnight and the next day he accompanied them to Cornelius’ house, which Cornelius had filled with his relatives and close friends. When Peter arrived, Cornelius, “fell down at his feet and worshiped him.” Peter quickly lifted him and said, “Stand up; I too am a man.” Peter then said to the crowded house, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation (meaning Gentiles), but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.”
At Peter’s request, Cornelius related what had happened and why he had sent for Peter. Immediately preceding Peter’s proclamation in verse 34, Cornelius made this startling remark, “So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”
What Does This Verse Mean?
In probably what was a huge “Aha!” moment for Peter, God showed him the Holy Spirit was not just for Jesus’ band of Jewish disciples (of which Peter was one), but for the Gentiles as well. Peter declared the Gospel to the crowd in verses 36-43, starting in verse 35 with his acknowledgment of what God was about to do, “but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him.”
To authenticate what Peter shared and that the people believed, “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.” Gentiles were now grafted in (Romans 11:13-24), dispelling the belief by the Jews that no other peoples could experience God’s blessings.
Is It True God Shows No Partiality?
In its context in Acts 10:34, the word partiality means “a respecter of persons.” The whole phrase then, “shows no partiality” tells us God is no respecter of persons. In short, a human cannot tell God whom to favor. Any actions we take or works we produce of our own initiative will not sway Almighty God one way or another.
Romans 2:1, Galatians 2:6, Ephesians 6:9, and Colossians 3:25 all reiterate the same truth. God, in His sovereignty, knows who will and who won’t surrender to Jesus, but we don’t. Our example is to present the Gospel to any audience the Lord sees fit to place before us, be it Jew, Gentile, black, white, Indian, East Asian, etc.
Jesus, when He died on the cross, fulfilled the prophecy and drew all men to Himself. The temple curtain was vertically torn in half by heaven’s hands, from top to bottom. The way there is now open to all who surrender to Jesus as Lord and Savior.
What about Regarding His Chosen People?
God, when He “chose” Abraham and His progeny, did so because it was His divine will, not because of anything they did. If we place a favoritism tag on God, we will be wrong. In the simplest terms, they were there, and God chose them.
Jesus is the great Unifier. When He was on the earth, He spoke with people the Jews detested when He was kind and spoke truth to the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-45).
He received and ate with sinners (Luke 15:2).
Galatians 3:28 is a succinct answer to one who questions God about being partial to the Jews, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
What Does It Mean for Us Today That God Shows No Partiality?
God does not look at man’s outward appearance, as do some teachers and influencers. God looks at our hearts. If we were in a medical college with a group of students dissecting the human heart, not a one could tell you if that heart belonged to a Jew or a Gentile or a black man or a Chinese man. We can’t help but look at everything subjectively.
But God knows each human heart intimately because He formed every single one (Psalm 33, esp. v.15), and He knows each one (Luke 6:15). So, regarding one’s outward appearance, of course God does not show partiality.
Pastor John Piper explains it this way, “The truth about God is that he is not partial. And what God’s impartiality means is that he judges not on the assumption that we all have access to the same amount of truth, but that we all have the truth we need to be held accountable, and that we will be judged by our response to what we do have, not what we don’t have.”
Showing partiality is a sin (James 2:9), and since God cannot sin, we know He is unable to be partial. Three distinct passages from the New Testament speak to how we are to remain impartial.
1 Timothy 5:21 says not to pre-judge. God sees everything.
James 2:1 is another great verse that tells us who hold the faith in our Lord Jesus are not to be partial
James 2:9 is an admonition to those who would sin by reason of showing partiality.
We, as Christians, are changed more and more into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). As His disciples, we are to reflect His nature to the world. We are to do that regardless of what another person looks like or acts like. In our flesh, it’s hard not to favor people or decide who is worthy, but when we yield to the Spirit, He leads us into all righteousness (Romans 14:17).
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/masterzphotois
