God Shows No Partiality?

[Genesius]

All the following verses are from the Catholic edition of the NAB:

2 Chronicles 19:7 – “And now, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Act carefully, for with the LORD, our God there is no injustice, no partiality, no bribe-taking."

Acts 10:34 - Then Peter proceeded to speak and said, "In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.”

Romans 2:11 - There is no partiality with God.

The verses above all seem to indicate that God shows no partiality. Yet, we see various examples throughout Sacred Scripture where He does. He never chooses people arbitrarily to speak for Him (i.e. OT prophets, the Apostles, Mary, etc.). How do we reconcile this? Just food for thought.

Hint: Perhaps the key is in the context of the verses above? I have also heard about one possible interpretation that those verses refer to Israel only. I’m not sure if there is any merit to this or not.

Have fun with it.

 

[Luke65]

“There is no partiality with God.” - that is always true. For example, just because you’re in a covenant with God, it doesn’t mean that He will show favoritism to you (Colossians 3:25), on the contrary:

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (Luke 12:48)

 

[NHInsider]

He never chooses people arbitrarily to speak for Him (i.e. OT prophets, the Apostles, Mary, etc.). How do we reconcile this? Just food for thought.

Can you clarify what you mean by that statement? It seems to me that there are numerous places where the Lord states pretty emphatically that He chooses people NOT because of their particular merit or worth - which is in keeping with the doctrine of grace, of course. But I suspect I misunderstand your point. . . .

 

[BerhaneSelassie]

I always assumed this meant roughly: “God is not racist,”

2 Chronicles 19:7 – “And now, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Act carefully, for with the LORD, our God there is no injustice, no partiality, no bribe-taking."
This refers to God not favoring people because of their status in society or wealth, the bible explicitly says not to make judgments using those as factors This verse is addressed to judges(verse 6).

Acts 10:34 - Then Peter proceeded to speak and said, "In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.”
This verse the context is gentiles. Notice the next verse says what St Peter meant: Rather, in* every nation** whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.* St Peter is saying that God does not only choose the Jews, the Holy Spirit came on the gentiles being preached to and had them speak in tongues and glorify God to show the Jews that Gentiles also belong in the Church.(acts 10:45-7)

Romans 2:11 - There is no partiality with God.
Again the context is Jews vs Gentiles, verse 10.

 

[Genesius]

Can you clarify what you mean by that statement? It seems to me that there are numerous places where the Lord states pretty emphatically that He chooses people NOT because of their particular merit or worth - which is in keeping with the doctrine of grace, of course. But I suspect I misunderstand your point. . . .

What I mean by He never chooses people ‘arbitrarily’ is that for instance in His foreknowledge He knew Mary’s character. In fact, He not only KNEW her character, in a sense He MADE her character as she was IMMACULATELY CONCEIVED. Some Protestants will assume that He could have chosen ‘Betty’ or ‘Sue’, but the lot just happened to fall on Mary. Not true. God CHOSE Mary.

Another example would be Peter. Obviously, Peter was chosen by the Father and the Son (Mt.16). Then Jesus seemed to show him more attention than the others (according only to what is recorded in Sacred Scripture). For instance, in Matthew 16 Jesus gives PETER the keys to the kingdom. Later on after Peter denies Him, in order to allow Peter to reconcile He asks him if he loves Him, then tells him to “Feed my sheep.”

Another apostle that seemed to get Jesus’ attention more than the others is John, when he refers to himself as “The disciple whom Jesus loved.” This does not mean that Jesus DIDN’T love the others, but there seems to be an exclusive sense to this verse.

By the way, I didn’t say He chooses them by their particular ‘merit’ or ‘worth’. He chooses whom He chooses for His divine reasons. In fact, I believe there are passages somewhere that support this. Don’t ask me now because my mind is not working properly at the moment, but in all my years of studying the Scriptures when I was a Protestant I remember running across those passages.

Also, I haven’t had an opportunity to study the Church’s teaching on this particular topic. I could be wrong that He does show partiality, but I’m just posing a question for the sake of prompting us to think. Notice I said it ‘seems’ that those verses would indicate that God shows no partiality, but the fact that the thread title is in the form of a question begs the question, so I’m also saying that He ‘seems’ to be showing partiality as well in some instances.

 

[Micholos]

If the Lord was showing partiality than it undermines the free will he has given to each man.

God knows all routes, and possible routes, and knows the route we will take through His infinite wisdom, however, this does not undermine or lessen the fact that God in His love gives each of us, which included Mary, Peter, and all the Saints the ability to choose freely. Although with Mary, through His love for the sake of the coming kingdom, and the Messiah, He wiped clean of original sin.

Because God loves us and wants us to love Him in freedom, He chose the best among us to prove to the world His divine worth, which is infinite.

No partiality was shown, it was by Peter’s faith, not his worth, that the spirit revealed to him that Jesus was the Messiah, and therefore making Peter the first among equals.

It was by Mary’s love of God that she was uplifted to be His handmaiden and the Queen of Heaven. Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” Luke 1.46;48 She was His servant, He looked kindly on her, not because she couldn’t sin but because she didn’t.

Our Father then chose Paul to prove that he shows no partiality, because obviously it seems contrary to logic to make a man like Paul one of his disciples. Just as much as it is against partiality to make a shepherd boy like David, King of Israel, or His own divine Son, who was born in a stable.

Our King lifts up the lowly, because so often the lowly need Him, then God turns his enemies into His friends, as it was the case of Rome. As for His friends who remain faithful, they know all that He has is theirs, just as in the parable of the prodigal son.

The wicked, as we all know receive only what they give, God help them.

 

[Genesius]

If the Lord was showing partiality than it undermines the free will he has given to each man.

God knows all routes, and possible routes, and knows the route we will take through His infinite wisdom, however, this does not undermine or lessen the fact that God in His love gives each of us, which included Mary, Peter, and all the Saints the ability to choose freely. Although with Mary, through His love for the sake of the coming kingdom, and the Messiah, He wiped clean of original sin.

Because God loves us and wants us to love Him in freedom, He chose the best among us to prove to the world His divine worth, which is infinite.

No partiality was shown, it was by Peter’s faith, not his worth, that the spirit revealed to him that Jesus was the Messiah, and therefore making Peter the first among equals.

It was by Mary’s love of God that she was uplifted to be His handmaiden and the Queen of Heaven. Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” Luke 1.46;48 She was His servant, He looked kindly on her, not because she couldn’t sin but because she didn’t.

Our Father then chose Paul to prove that he shows no partiality, because obviously it seems contrary to logic to make a man like Paul one of his disciples. Just as much as it is against partiality to make a shepherd boy like David, King of Israel, or His own divine Son, who was born in a stable.

Our King lifts up the lowly, because so often the lowly need Him, then God turns his enemies into His friends, as it was the case of Rome. As for His friends who remain faithful, they know all that He has is theirs, just as in the parable of the prodigal son.

The wicked, as we all know receive only what they give, God help them.

Thank you, Micholos. That was very well articulated. One of the things I was trying to prompt us to think about was that we cannot put God in a box. It’s true that He has revealed His truth to Mother Church and we have a multitude of wonderful gifts to draw on in the Church. However, I think of the example of some non-Catholic Christians who tend to say that we should hold God to His promises as though He has to be accountable to us, or that He is a genie in a bottle that we can just use whenever we feel like it to do our bidding. I find that to be a very arrogant attitude and wonder if these people really know much about God. I know I don’t know much about Him from all the years I have studied about Him and walked with Him (I am 48 and established a relationship with Him when I was about 8), but I know that I am nothing to Him in one sense, and that I have no recourse but to fall down on my knees in His presence.

I believe it was St. Thomas of Aquinas who, after years of painful studying of philosophy and theology, finally came to the realization that it was all just straw. And then I think of Job, who finally questioned God about all the suffering he had endured, not to mention all the suffering throughout the world, only to basically hear, “Who are you to question my divine will?” The most we can hope for is to trust in God’s divine will and know that He is absolutely just and omniscient. In other words, He’s much smarter and talented than any of us, and He will have mercy on whom He will. I trust in that.

Concerning human freewill, I don’t believe that IF He shows partiality it takes away from human freewill, for we can do nothing good without His mercy and graces that are available however He chooses to offer them, whether through the Sacraments, or in some other fashion. However, we must choose to receive them and cooperate with His grace.