A Chosen Race

1 Peter 2:9

Introduction

Racism has been a topic of increasing concern for our nation over the last few years reaching a crescendo last year.

While no one wants to be called a racist, more and more are accused of it every day.

We have no desire to step into the middle of a worldly screaming match. But we do desire to have clear minds about what the Bible says about these things so that we don’t end up defending or participating in something puts us at odds with truth.

Defining Terms

The term racism is not found in scripture.

This makes it hard to define Biblically.

Moreover, the term is used so liberally now that it has lost all sense of meaning.

But it used to have a firmer meaning.

It used to refer to your average bigot.

That is someone who discriminated or otherwise poorly treated someone else based solely on their ethnicity.

Racism is not mentioned in scripture but hatred is (1 Jn. 2:11).

That hatred can go in any direction.

You don’t have to be powerful to hate.

“The white man who loves violence is detested by God. The black man who loves violence is detested by God. The fact that they detest each other does not keep them from going to Hell together.”

Ethnic pride is also condemned (Deut. 9:3-6).

This can come in a hateful package.

Or it can come in a well meaning but utterly condescending package.

Moral discrimination is not the same as racial discrimination (Lev. 18:3).

Race and Culture

Cultures can have characteristics that are generally true (Lev. 18:3; Tit. 1:12).

Observing these characteristics is not necessarily racism.

There are sins that particularly beset each culture.

Exceptions do not disprove the rule.

There are many indicators of participation in a culture (Lev. 19:26-31).

Counter Cultural

It is easy for us to imagine that we would have been on the “right side of history” (Matt. 23:29-31).

It is easy for us to look back and define all the players good and bad and know we would have stood with right.

We would have decried segregation and stood up against chattel slavery and etc. etc.

All of those who are saying that assume:

They are fighting some cultural tide rather than surfing on it.

That they have the right answers to yesterday’s questions much less today’s.

They are wrong on all counts.

We each must identify the elements of our culture that we must put away (Tit. 1:13-14).

Honest conversations about the good and bad of ALL cultures is not welcomed.

Paul is not welcomed.

Those who believe that we cannot escape our culture are participants in the culture of racism (Jer. 18:12).

True reconciliation can only be found in Christ (Rom. 3:21-25).

But for this to happen, we must define the sins that are being paid for.

And we must identify the one who is paying for them and how.

The goal is that we would take pride in no cultural identity except that of Christ (Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 9:20-23).

Those who say that becoming color-blind is actually racism…well, maybe we just better start back at the beginning.

The goal is not that we pretend that cultural identities don’t exist, but that we show them all to subservient to identity in Christ.

Conclusion

Do you think that racism is an overwhelming problem in our culture? Perhaps it is. But only in so much as people are actually doing what God condemns.

Do you want to “fight” racism? Then imitate Christ. It won’t make the culture happy but it will be the only thing that actually helps.

You may need to shed some cultural baggage. Maybe you even want to. But whether you want to or not, Christ offers you a better identity than any that this world offers.