No Race is Better than Any Other

 Racism is a terrible reality. There are many people in the world who feel that their ethnic group is superior to other ethnic groups around them, so they look down on them and mistreat them in various ways. In Jesus' day the Jews were very much racists. They called everyone who was not a Jew a "gentile." That was meant to be derogatory by pointing out that the Jews were God's chosen people and others were not. Yes, God did choose the Jews and made a covenant with them, but He meant for them to love all people and point them to God. Even Peter had to be taught a lesson about racism. God did this by showing Peter a vision and sending him to the home of Cornelius, a Roman, to preach the gospel to him and his family. (Acts 10:28) Peter even pointed out to them that what he was doing by visiting and relaxing with people of another race was very irregular or against the Jewish way. However, he confessed that God had shown him that no race is better than any other. Oh, how we need to learn this lesson today, which we should have learned long ago.

As I have explained before, there is really only one race of people, since we are all descended from Noah and his family after the flood. Today, people use the word race to denote different ethnic groups. This view of race leads us to think that because of a person's background or the color of their skin that they are inferior to us. This is never true, but it leads us to be prejudiced against certain groups of people even before we get to know them. God hates that. He wants us to connect with all types of people, to visit with them, and form friendships. We are to do this out of love and to share the gospel with everyone. Therefore, we must remove all racism from our thinking and instead, embrace people of all ethnic groups with the love of Jesus.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Acts 11-13.