“11 For God shows no partiality. (Romans 2:11)”
Paul is writing to the church in Rome, the center then of Western civilization, multilingual and multicultural, a group of people practicing a minority faith tradition in its time. He openly says he is not ashamed of the gospel as it gives him power and righteousness. The reality of God is evident to all people by observing nature and to not acknowledge a god and respect it is a moral, not an intellectual problem. Honoring God’s creation and not God is idolatry.
In chapter two he is beginning to refine his point. He focuses on the felt difference between the Jew and the Gentile. He is focusing on our tendency to justify ourselves as opposed to “the other.” At that time it was the Jewish-Gentile division but we have our lines we draw in the sand too. The rich are blessed and the poor aren’t, we might think. The healthy, young and able are more favored by God than us old, declining and less able elders – could be our temptation to think. In other words, we accuse God of partiality, of liking some more than others, of blessing some more than others.
Paul points out that accusing others of the very sins we ourselves do is hypocrisy. Gentiles may break laws obvious in nature but Jews break the laws revealed in the Torah. When we take God’s forgiveness for granted because we are a believer, we deny God’s justice. Likewise if we are so afraid of his justice that we diminish his mercy, then we have a problem with faith. In short, faith and works are both important and judging others is God’s job, not ours.
Partiality is defined on the Internet as “unfair bias in favor of one thing or person compared with another; favoritism.” Let us ask the Holy Spirit today to shine its light on our lives and bring to mind incidents when we might have shown favoritism among family, friends or even others and point out to us any ways that we might sulk and accuse God of favoritism. It is good to be reminded that God does not show partiality. Thank you that you are fair. Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 