Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ESV
Racism and discrimination are an issue usually handled in secular circles rather than in a Christian forum. However we are all human and the attitudes we accumulate as we travel through life from childhood onto old age can ambush us when we least expect it. This is a statement I have found to be true in my life and my witness
It’s that moment when you least expect it that something surfaces from deep within your meta cognitive and before you know it you are saying something that you wouldn’t have believed you could even have thought of. Ever. In that moment the person in front of you becomes a thing not a complex, beautiful creation of the Lord God worthy of infinite care and endless love. A racial epithet or a curse word or some derogatory term sums up all that they are and sentences them to denigration and hatred.
This happens when you allow yourself to become desensitized. Instead of seeing a person in standing in front of you they become a thing, a label, and that label defines them as far as you are concerned. They are quantified and have only the worth that someone with that label can have. Like black, homeless person, unemployed person, prostitute; which all have connotations which impact the way you view those groups of people in an instant and takes no notice of their personal abilities.
As a Christian desensitisation allows the enemy to have a way into your relationships with people you meet everyday. It impacts on how those people see you and it definitely affects your witness to people in those groups. So that they don’t value what you say to them. Your gospel is devalued because they know what you think of them. Even if it is at level deep in your soul. It still shows.
Acts 17:26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place... ESV
I have, in the past, been in a Church which was predominantly a European congregation where they attempted to bring Māori converts into the Church. The casual racism from the parishioners drove the new converts away. Because although there was love for a new believer their was no love for a Māori person nor any attempt to understand who these people were as individuals.
So to wrap this discussion up. My advice to my fellow believers in Christ Jesus is to focus on the person who is standing in front of you. Have love for that person and try to understand and empathise with that person. Don’t allow the enemy to cause you to classify them in anyway. Have only the love of Christ Jesus for them. Ask God for power to love them and to connect with them and be on your guard against the enemy who will trigger the desensitisation switch. Nothing destroys a witness as effectively as radiating a personal bias. Food for thought?
James 2: 1-26 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? ESV
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