Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Beelieve - Know God Intimately: God Is Impartial

For previous Know God Intimately Lessons please click here

Deut. 10:17 "For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe.”

Definition:

Impartial means not partial and speaks of God's attribute whereby He treats all men and women equally, not demonstrating favoritism. God does not show prejudice towards or against any person or party.

Romans 2: 6,9-11 “(God) WILL RENDER TO EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:... There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Why?) For there is no partiality with God.”

Impartially (aprosopoleptos from a = not, without + prósopon = face + lambáno = receive) literally means "not receiving face" which then came to mean “without respect of persons”.
Aprosopoleptos is derived from a Hebrew idiom "to receive the face" of someone which meant to show partiality or favoritism. This word reflects the respectful oriental greeting in which one humbly turns one’s face to the ground upon meeting another person. If the person greeted raised the face of the man, this was a sign of recognition and esteem. God does not receive anybody’s face. He is impartial. Outward appearance, wealth, culture, social position, family background, education, beauty, intellect, all things that more or less sway the opinions of man, do not count with God when it comes to appraising a person’s character or worthiness.

Acts 10:34,35 And opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right, is welcome to Him.

What It Means To Me:

This attribute makes me sigh in relief. In a society where people are judged by how they look, how rich, how famous, what you do for a living, what you drive, where you live, etc….. It is such a relief to know I do not have to “perform” to “impress” God.

In 1981, I went to a job interview where the interviewer point blank asked, “Why are you fat?” You can imagine my surprise, but again, this was before discrimination laws came into effect. I quickly gained my composure and came back with a quick wit response to his rude question, “Why are you short and bald?!” He looked at me and smiled as to say this kid has spunk. He then explained his statement. He believed that fat people are lazy and sick all the time. We shook hands and I left thinking how glad I was that I would never see him again!

That night this man could not sleep, all he could think about was our interview. The next morning I receive a phone call that he wanted to see me again. As we met, he said, “I don’t know what it is about you, but something kept telling me all night to hire you against all my objections. I will hire you with a two month probation period. If you last that long without being absent I will eat my words, give you a raise on the spot and apologize in front of my staff!” How could I refuse such an offer to prove him wrong?! I took the challenge!

At the same time I was hired he also hired a beautiful model looking girl with whom he had great expectations. Two months went by and of course he ate his words, gave me a raise, more responsibility and apologized in front of his whole staff! Oh, what happened to the beautiful model? She was sick so much that she was FIRED before the two months were up!

The world can be a cruel place, but I am so thankful that my God does not care what color my skin is, if I am the perfect size 0, perfect health, or from a poor country or “rich”. God see’s us all the same… a sinner needing His marvelous grace…. Covered by the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary!

3 comments:

Denise said...

Amen, preach on dear one.

Angela said...

I LOVED your comment back to him, I started to giggle. What a powerful testimony.

He & Me + 3 said...

Loved the story. I am so thankful that God is impartial too!