The Color of Love: Color Foundation

Scripture

Genesis 1:27 KJV 1900

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Galatians 3:28 KJV 1900

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

John 3:16 KJV 1900

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Introduction

As we look at America today and the current status of the culture that we live within, there’s no denying that race is playing a major role in our everyday lives.

In fact, I would venture to say that race has played a major part in American history since this land was discovered and eventually taken from the Native Americans who were already presently here.

We’ve seen the atrocities that have been levied upon the lives of black and brown people in America. From the days of slavery to Jim Crow to modern day executions of black and brown people at the hands of corrupt police officers and white people across the country.

We’ve even seen actual lynchings of black people still taking place in 2020 only to be disguised as a suggested suicide. Why? Simply because America still does not want to deal with its past and present realities of racism!

We’ve also seen the many videos of whites being brutalized at the hands of blacks out of retaliation, frustration, and anger of being disenfranchised and a people without a voice being heard in the “wilderness”!

Racism in America is as real as it’s ever been and simply put, racism is not going anywhere.

We must face the reality that because sin has entered into this world, there will be those who have hatred in their hearts.

There will be those who believe their race is superior to another race based on the color of their skin!

But just because we know these things will remain does not mean that we don’t fight for the betterment of lives here in America or we as all of God’s children.

In this series we will deal with racism head on, but not only in America, we are going to deal with racism within the church! Some of the questions you may have are: What does the bible say about racism? How does God feel about slavery? How does God feel about racism?

Prayerfully by the end of this series, each of those questions will have been answered and a full understanding of God’s stance will be gained.

I know this will be controversial for some, in fact, some of the teachings that I will bring out as it relates to racism and slavery, many of you may have a hard time believing and accepting.

However, I believe that in due season, God will reveal to you and allow us to take an inner look at how we are approaching this subject matter and how we can do better by our brothers and sisters in Christ.

In order to truly understand a thing, we must begin to look at its history and origin.

Where purpose is unknown, abuse is inevitable.

History of Slavery/Racism in America

Here are some alarming statistics...

Racism in Schools

Black pre-schoolers are far more likely to be suspended than white children, NPR reported. Black children make up 18 percent of the pre-school population, but represent almost half of all out-of-school suspensions.

Once you get to K-12, black children are three times more likely to be suspended than white children. Black students make up almost 40 percent of all school expulsions, and more than two thirds of students referred to police from schools are either black or Hispanic, says the Department of Education.

Even disabled black children suffer from institutional racism. About a fifth of disabled children are black – yet they account for 44 and 42 percent of disabled students put in mechanical restraints or placed in seclusion.

When juveniles hit the court system, it discriminates against blacks as well. Black children are 18 times more likely to be sentenced as adults than white children, and make up nearly 60 percent of children in prisons, according to the APA. Black juvenile offenders are much more likely to be viewed as adults in juvenile detention proceedings than their white counterparts.

Racism in the Workplace

In the workplace, black college graduates are twice as likely as whites to struggle to find jobs - the jobless rate for blacks has been double that of whites for decades.

A study even found that people with “black-sounding names” had to send out 50 percent more job applications than people with “white-sounding names” just to get a call back.

And it gets worse the higher up the pay scale you go. For every $10,000 increase in pay, blacks’ percentages of holding that job falls by 7 percent compared to whites.

Racism in Housing

The disparities exist in our neighborhoods and communities.

About 73 percent of whites own homes, compared to just 43 percent of blacks.

The gap between median household income for whites (about $91,000) compared to blacks (about $7,000) is staggering, and that gap has tripled in just the past 25 years.

The median net worth of white families is about $265,000, while it was just $28,500 for blacks.

Racism in the Justice System

A black man is three times more likely to be searched at a traffic stop, and six times more likely to go to jail than a white person.

Blacks make up nearly 40 percent of arrests for violent crimes.

Blacks aren’t pulled over (and subsequently jailed) more frequently because they’re more prone to criminal behavior. They’re pulled over much more frequently because there is an “implicit racial association of black Americans with dangerous or aggressive behavior,” the Sentencing Project found.

The numbers get ridiculous in certain parts of the country, the project found. On the New Jersey Turnpike, for instance, blacks make up 15 percent of drivers, more than 40 percent of stops and 73 percent of arrests – even though they break traffic laws at the same rate as whites. In New York City, blacks and Hispanics were three and four times as likely to be stopped and frisked as whites.

If a black person kills a white person, they are twice as likely to receive the death sentence as a white person who kills a black person. Local prosecutors are much more likely to upgrade a case to felony murder if you’re black than if you’re white.

Racial bias in jury selection is ridiculous – qualified black jurors are illegally turned away as much as 80 percent of the time in the jury selection process.

The result? About a quarter of juries in death penalty cases have no black jurors, and more than two-thirds have two or less. When a black person is accused of killing a white person – and the jury consists of five or more white males – the odds go way up for a death penalty verdict. Defense lawyers, and prosecutors, know that having just a single black man on the jury substantially changes the odds.

Black people stay in prison longer than white people – up to 20 percent longer than white people serving time for essentially similar crimes. They get much harsher sentences – black people are 38 percent more likely to be sentenced to death than white people for the same crimes.

And the color of the skin of the victims matters greatly in the punishment for capital crimes. Whites and blacks represent about half of murder victims from year to year, but 77 percent of people who are executed killed a white person, while only 13 percent of death row executions represent those who killed a black person.

Racism in the Church

Only 32 percent of White pastors strongly agree that “my church is involved with racial reconciliation at the local level.” Fifty-three percent of African American pastors strongly agree with this statement.

Only 56 percent of evangelicals believe that “people of color are often put at a social disadvantage because of their race.” Eighty-four percent of Blacks agree with this statement.

A recent study showed that 81 percent of America’s Protestant churches are composed of one predominant racial group.

While 90 percent of Protestant pastors say their congregation would welcome a sermon on racial reconciliation, only 26 percent say leaders in their church have encouraged them to preach on the subject.

The fact is that the church has remained complicit in the perpetuation of racism in America.

Sunday remains the most segregated day of the week although we work, play, and many times, gather together with other races throughout the week.

No longer can we allow the sin of racism that has griped this country to infiltrate the doors of the “church” of God.

We have to live according to the word of God and what the bible teaches us about bias and bigotry.

So what does the bible say about us?

There are 6 Theological Truths that this series will be anchored around!

1. We are all created by God.

Humanity was created in Genesis. Genesis 1:27

Every person is created intentionally by God in his own divine image.

We are sacred and equally valuable.

This is why we should reject every form of racism.

God created us the same. He gave each of us His DNA.

We are all brothers and sisters in creation.

2. We all have descended from the same parents

Every human being is a descendant of Adam and Eve.

The word declares in Genesis 1:28

Genesis 1:28 KJV 1900

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 3:20 KJV 1900

20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

As scripture tells us, God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth”

Acts 17:26 KJV 1900

26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

And because of the flood, we can also trace our ancestry back to Noah as well.

Genesis 9:1 KJV 1900

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

3. Every person is equally valuable to God

Paul says to us in Galatians 3:28

Galatians 3:28 KJV 1900

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Understand that Paul is saying this during a time where the Jews considered the Greeks to be unclean and inferior to them.

Their racism was so deep within that they would hardly even look at the Gentiles.

Many of them wouldn’t even accept that Jesus was the messiah because of the region he was born out of.

“There is neither slave nor free”: as we will learn, many viewed slaves as inferior to the Romans.

Just a note of understanding: slaves were not categorized based only by skin color. Biblical slavery was very different from what we have come to know slavery as.

Then Paul makes an even stronger declaration in saying “There is no male and female”.

Romans considered women to be the possession of men in that culture.

A female belonged to her father until she belonged to her husband.

Women were either wives or concubines, with very few rights of their own.

But Paul sought to debunk every level of racism, classicism, or sexism.

Every form of racism known to Paul at that time had no merit in God’s kingdom because God loves us all.

Paul once again declared this same statement in Colossians 3:11

Because God shows no partiality according to Acts 10:43

Acts 10:34 KJV 1900

34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

Neither should we!

4. Each Person is equally welcome to salvation in Christ

God loves all sinners and wants all to come to faith through His son

Romans 5:8 tells us that “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 KJV 1900

8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

2 Peter 3:9 tells us that Our Lord “is patient toward us, wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance”

1 Timothy 2:4 tells us that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”

God’s saving power is available to all that desire it!

5. All people will be equally valuable in paradise.

The Apostle John received a vision in the book of Revelation that showed the great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. (Revelations 7:9)

6. We are to love all people unconditionally

God is absolutely and unequivocally direct on his position that we should love ALL people without partiality in the matter.

For James tells us...

James 2:9 ESV

9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

Partiality is translated as meaning to show favoritism or prejudice, to treat one person as inherently better than another. This type of prejudice is a “sin.”

God also instructed us according to Leviticus 19:34 to “treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and to love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”

Jesus taught us to love others as ourselves and treat others how we want to be treated.

Today I want you to know that we are called to love on the greatest scale possible as believers in Jesus Christ.

God’s desire is that we all commune together as one, one faith, one body, one sound, and one common goal to worship and praise our God; to accomplish His will for the Kingdom here on earth!

Invitation

Today I invite you to become a part of that kingdom. You know longer have to live in bondage.

You no longer have to be a slave to sin, but you can experience the fullness of God’s love today.

If that’s you, I want you to repeat this simple prayer with me...

Say Lord Jesus, I confess my sins today. I’m a wretch undone and I’m in need of a savior. Say Lord Jesus, come into my life, save me today, fix me today! Lord I believe you sent your son to die for me and he rose again to secure my salvation. Today I’m free, I’m no longer bound, but today I am FREE in you!!!!

If you prayed that prayer, then you are saved today! We celebrate with you for the word tells us that the angels rejoice over even one soul coming to know Christ!