There has always been prejudice, and there always will be, but this is wrong behavior for a Christian. We all tend to judge people based on what we see. If that is not enough, we judge them on where they came from or their past. Most of the time we have already formed our opinion before we ever properly meet them.
James makes it clear in these first four verses that this is wrong! We are to have “no respect of persons.”
James 2:1-4 “My brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that warmth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?”
Paul makes it clear in Romans 2:11 that God does not show favoritism.
Romans 2:11 “For there is no respect of persons with God.”
So why do we allow our sinful nature to rule in this area? It is a condition of pride that infects us all to some measure. It is only when we see ourselves as unworthy because of our sinful nature that we understand we are all the same. There is not one thing that I can do to merit salvation. At the foot of the cross, it is all level ground.
The Jewish people were full of pride. They had been God’s chosen people and took pride in something that should have humbled them instead of puffing them up. They sought honor and recognition. They felt they were better than any other group of people. They were so steeped in their pride that it blinded them to the truth of the Messiah! Because of their prejudice, they missed Jesus as God!
Jesus never treated anyone differently because of their race, religion, gender, or education. He did not care where they came from. He makes that clear when he meets with the Samaritan woman in John chapter four.
John 4:9 “Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”
This Samaritan woman had probably been shunned by Jews before. She knew what the Jews thought about her. She asks Jesus why He would ask her for a drink. Jesus is concerned about one thing, her spiritual condition. We should not judge by the color of a person’s skin. The only difference is the amount of melanin in the skin. It’s determined by genetics, just like the color of your eyes or the size of your feet. You do not choose it or control it. We should not judge by the amount of education a person achieves. All kinds of factors determine our education, and sometimes we have little control over those factors. I could go on, but there should be no factor about a person that should cause us to think we are better than them. It is only by God’s grace that any of us have anything; even the family we are born into is a gift from God.
Ok, that rant is over now. Let’s go back to the text. Jesus is a perfect example of how we should treat others, and he also understands how it feels to be mistreated. He was murdered because he told the truth. He was rejected because he was from Nazareth. He understood how this woman felt. Because He is all-knowing, He knew she would be there. Jesus had an appointment with her, an appointment she knew nothing about. It was not by chance they were there together.
John 1:46 “And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.”
We should not only realize that Jesus understands how we feel when people are prejudiced against us, but we should also understand from him how we are to treat others. When we act like Jesus, the world will see him in us, as he is—a God who loves them, a God who does not hold our past against us once we repent, a God who feels every pain we ever have and is able to give us a perfect future.
We must learn to look at people through the eyes of Jesus. If you are a Christian, we are all in this family together. If a person is not a Christian, we love and treat them compassionately. Jesus died for them the same way he died for us. They have a soul that will spend eternity somewhere forever. Sinner, or Saint, we are all in this together. We should love everyone in a way that will lead all we come in contact with to the foot of the cross.
If all Christians loved the way Christ loves, our world would be a totally different place. We would make a dramatic impact on the status of the world today.
Examine yourself today. What do you think, and how do you act when approached by someone of a different skin color or nationality?
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