In the old modern university, the ideal was that in the search for knowledge, the researcher should be objective. This approach to scholarship is a Deistic corruption of the Judeo-Christian God. It treats the ideal of the scholar as the Marvel character known as the Watcher. The impassive but accurate observer of events does not interfere but just chronicles the narratives occurring in their area of study. The triune God is not an object and there is not an English translation of the Bible that speaks of God as being objective. This quality is not an approach to scholarship that ever should have been imitated by Christians.

One virtue that briefly made headlines a few months ago is rarely discussed today. At least, I rarely hear of it talked about as a virtue or placed on lists of Christian or public virtues. Indeed, one of the intriguing things about moral language in the academy, whether in Christian or secular circles, is the virtues that are emphasized and omitted from discussions. One of the virtues that one always hears about is justice. Yet, one rarely hears about a virtue that is necessary for justice to occur: impartiality.1

We heard in the news a few months ago that the lawyers in the Trump trial would have difficulty finding twelve impartial jurors. They should have been able to pick from any mature Christian. After all, the basics of a Christian theory of virtue is that we, as image bearers of God, are to acquire God’s virtues. In other words, we need to pay attention to God’s virtues to know what character qualities will help us flourish as human beings. The Bible is clear that one of God’s qualities is that God avoids partiality and that we should imitate this virtue.

The Biblical Basis

Specifically, God is described or revealed as one who is not partial (Deut. 10:17; 2 Chron. 19:7; Job 34:19; Rom. 2:11; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25; James 3:7). In older translations, such as the KJV, it is phrased “regardeth not persons.” Interestingly, I cannot recall reading a recent essay on the topic or seeing it discussed in Christian ethics texts as a virtue. When I looked up the topic of impartiality in my library, I found only two books that focused on God’s impartiality—one from 2007 and the other from 1982.2 I also could not find one study that attempted to measure the practice of impartiality and only found three theological articles on partiality.3 Indeed, the words impartial and impartiality have been in decline for some time.

Why is that?

The Reasons for the Neglect of Impartiality

Some of these problems can be explained by our own partiality toward certain virtues. We tend to gravitate more to popular virtues such as being just or fair. Yet, there is an important difference between these concepts. After all, in both Hebrew and Greek scriptures the term is given a unique set of words4 that are different than justice or fairness. The difference is that impartiality is the prior virtue necessary for the practice of justice to occur. That is why we look for impartial jurors in a trial before we determine justice.

It is important to note that impartiality is not something God simply practices in every context and situation. After all, God chooses specific people groups or people for specific callings. As the verses cited above indicate, it is a virtue God uses when evaluating particular groups or individuals under a law or moral principle. Impartiality deals with God’s judgments of human action within God’s moral order.

That same virtue, or more accurately, avoidance of vice, is required of Israel (Lev. 19:15; Deut. 1:17; 16:19; Mal. 2:9), the wise person in general (Ps. 82:2; Prov. 24:23; 28:21) and Christians (James 2:1; 3:7).5 The context for the exercise of impartiality in these cases almost always involves moral or legal judgments that deal with people of different economic, social, or ethnic identities (Greek/Jew; poor/rich; slave/master).

Impartiality is also the quality that I continually find that students appreciate in their teachers. 

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