What happens when preachers play favorites?

In Malachi 2:1-9, God rebukes the priests for “showing partiality” — for twisting His Word and favoring some people over others. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt explains what God expects of those who teach His Word.

The priests had kept the outward show of religion but abandoned their real calling. God points back to Levi, the model priest who feared God and spoke the truth, turning many from sin. The current priests did the opposite — lowering the standard and applying Scripture unevenly. Dr. Holt warns against preaching only the popular, comfortable parts of the Bible. He compares it to a medicine with its key ingredient removed: it may look the same, but it cannot heal.

Questions this study answers:

1. What does it mean to “show partiality in the law”? It means teaching only the convenient parts of God’s Word or favoring certain people. The priests bent God’s truth to please others.

2. What is the right standard for those who teach? Like Levi, they should fear God, speak the truth, and turn people from sin. A faithful teacher gives people God’s whole Word, not just the easy parts.

3. Why does watering down the message matter? Because a gospel stripped of its hard truths cannot save, just as a medicine without its key ingredient cannot cure. People need the real thing.

“Therefore I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept My ways but have shown partiality in the law.” — Malachi 2:9 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the Malachi Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.