Although the word “impartiality” is not found in the Bible, the Christian grace of impartiality is taught in numerous Scriptures, our text being one of them. Impartiality may be defined as the quality by which we think, feel, speak, and act as to others from the standpoint of their character deserts. We can add to our understanding of impartiality by considering its opposite, which is partiality, favoritism, and prejudice. Partiality may also be exaggerated. This takes place when one gives identical treatment toward evildoers and the benevolent.
Impartiality in the Scriptures
Some examples of impartiality include:
Leviticus 19: 15: “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.”
Acts 10: 34, 35: “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”
Romans 2: 11: “For there is no respect of persons with God.”
Galatians 3: 28 Examined
This verse is addressed to the consecrated people of God, and it expresses God’s point of view with respect to them. Consequently, it should represent the point of view of the Lord’s people in their relations with one another. God does not look upon His people along the lines of their sex, color, condition, etc. His preferences and favors are alike toward them – according to their zeal and love for Him. We must likewise esteem the consecrated as “brethren” and be kindly affectioned toward all, seek to serve all, and know no partiality amongst them along the lines of their sex, race, color, etc. However, we should esteem the brethren more highly proportionate to their degree of Christlikeness.
When the verse says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek,” let us not think that because favor was granted to the Jewish nation in the past, that the Jew would have a preferential place among the Church or the other faith classes of the Gospel Age. Likewise, the Greek (Gentiles) was not to think that because the Jew had been cut off, that he would be disfavored in the eyes of the Lord as respects a place in His Kingdom.
When we read, “there is neither bond nor free,” let us recognize that God did not view slaves as inferior in His sight as respects one’s hopes for a place in the future Kingdom. Nor did it mean that the slave who came into Christ was to be considered a free man, and that he use his time, etc., in disregard of his master’s wishes.
“There is neither male nor female”
Some have gotten the impression that the Apostle means that after we have become the Lord’s people, sex distinctions may be ignored. On the contrary, the Christian man is to be no less chaste and reserved than when he was a worldly man. The higher ideals of his new relationship with the Lord should make him more discreet, more highminded, more careful everyway of propriety and true manliness in word, in thought, in conduct. The Christian woman is to be no less pure in thought, in word, in conduct, than she was before she came into relationship with Christ. This should put us more on guard from two standpoints:
(1.) From the world’s standpoint and from our own actual standpoint we still have our fleshly weaknesses and blemishes to contend with, to fight against, to overcome.
(2.) From the Lord’s standpoint, he is not judging us according to the weaknesses and frailties of the flesh, but according to the desires and intentions of the new mind. But the new mind will control the flesh to the extent of its ability, and nothing could be more unwise than for it to ignore the flesh and to expose itself to peculiar temptations of the flesh.
The last part, “For ye are all one in Christ Jesus,” indicates that the Lord’s people, gathered from every nation and people and tongue, though dissimilar in their intellectual, moral, physical and financial conditions, are all covered by the robe of Christ’s righteousness, which makes up for the deficiencies of each one.