If I were to ask you what the three most prominent sins in the Bible, you might mention idolatry or sexual immorality, and you would be right. However, we tend to have superficial views of these so that we draw small circles for what constitutes idolatry or sexual immorality. Today I want to bring out a form of idolatry that is mentioned throughout scripture in the form of partiality.
Partiality is when one "considers the face" over the type of biblical justice that God has required as a means to worship Him. Sometimes it's just that we like some people over others. Sometimes, one person has something we want and the other person doesn't. Maybe what we want is money, a position, influence, or just to be accepted by a group. These are all sorts of little bribes that tempt us to make unrighteous judgments.
One of the major problems with Israel in the Old Testament and the Jews who contend with Christ is that they think that God is partial toward them. Since they are His people, they have special privileges that allow them to get away with more sin than others. The Bible teaches us that they actually have a smaller leash when it comes to sin than others precisely because they are God's people who need to represent Him in His character to the rest of the world, so God is not partial to His people.
Since God is not partial, no one who represents Him should be partial. This is why the Bible talks so much about hearing the case of the widow or orphan, groups of people who have no influence in the community, no money, no clout. Hence, crooked judges do not hear their side of things. They automatically render favorable judgments for other people within the nobility, a class to which judges tend to belong.
Pagan worship is bound up in bribing the gods, so that the gods give to the individual with money, a powerful sacrifice, a king with influence, whatever he desires. Pagan rulers then mimic their demonic gods. But God requires His character displayed back to Him as an act of worship and refuses to honor those who take a bribe, regardless of whether it is monetary or that which gets approval from the crowd, is detested by God because it is a means of demonic worship.
Instead of partiality, a man of God is to listen to the testimony of two or three witnesses, regardless of whether they are of one's group, friends, enemies, rich, poor, etc. Justice demands truth and truth will not be granted to the man who looks to exonerate his friends or benefactors from any crimes they may have committed.
This includes what often happens in Christian circles where some sin is committed by someone considered "godly" so they must be the person in the right, even when multiple witnesses can testify to the contrary. This has the aroma of loyalty and is therefore often received as a form of godliness even though, scripturally speaking, it is a dark demonic offering of worship often given to the individual human in question rather than to God who demands that a judgment be made based on all of the testimony of both parties involved.
Some of the greatest evils done in the church have been excused because "I know so-and-so is in the right because I know him and he is a godly man." In fact, lots of pretenders know that people are partial and will judge this way, so they will feign a sort of godliness by being the "bigger person" amongst others in sort of Machiavellian effort to control people's thoughts on the matter when in fact he is guilty of the evils of which he is being accused.
We have Lady Justice as a symbol of what justice looks like and why we blindfold her. Justice is blind. If it isn't, it isn't justice. It's demonic idolatry that seeks to worship God through a demonic partiality. This is what it means to hear the case or judge the poor, the widow, the orphan. It means to be blind to who they are and who your friends are, and to just make a judgment based on the testimony of the witnesses to the crime. Justice is not established by your feelings about someone. It is established by evidence.
Hence, a wicked people are a partial people who do not worship the true God. Indeed, it may be that people judge this way because they have a different god. The God of the Bible has made Himself very clear.
"For YHWH your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the fearsome God who does not show partiality or take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows love for the resident alien by giving him food and clothing." (Deut 10:17-18)
"You are not to pervert the judgment of a stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's garment as a pledge." (Deut 24:17)
All partiality is a crime with which Israel is charged over and over again, and one of the reasons God does not accept any of their other sanctioned worship. In short, idolatry is an act of apostasy, and partiality is idolatry. Hence, partiality is an act of apostasy in the form of demonic worship.
Those who would claim to be the people of God must repent of their partiality and learn to judge justly through the only just means God has provided: the evidence, including the evidence of two or three witnesses of the crimes alleged.
This also goes the other way when it comes to slander and gossip. Anyone can make accusations and say they are a witness, but more than one witness is needed, and it needs to be independently received. Any group can suddenly have a supposed feeling or knowledge of someone else because they have been conditioned through gossip and slander rather than actually witnessing concrete actions themselves.
This is why no accusation is even to be received against an elder unless the accusation is established/confirmed by two or three witnesses. Not even a trial is to come about in the first place if three are not at least two independent witnesses. This is how biblical justice is done, and this is what true worship of the true God looks like.
Pagans in our culture don't often look like the pagans of old. They don't have literal idols to which they are bowing down, nor do they have different names for their gods. They simply refer to their pagan god as God, and confuse and syncretize the God revealed in Scripture with their gods. You will know them by their judgments. Their partiality or lack thereof will tell you who they worship. Their idolatry is in their character. They are the image of their gods, not only via the decisions they make, but by the way they make those decisions.
And unjust people are a pagan people. I don't care what they name their church or how much they use the name Jesus. Their jesus is a partial one and so not the one who reigns on high. He is a pagan deity who excuses their unrepentant injustices.
He who receives the word of his friend or benefactor over the plural independent testimony and evidence of others is an idolater, and idolaters will spend eternity with the demonic gods they worship.
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