What Does the Bible Say About Prejudice? Sample

Day 5 - Peter’s relapse into prejudice

Whether it’s David’s failure with Bathsheba or Abraham trying to secure an heir through his servant, the Bible doesn’t whitewash its main characters. In this case, we’ll look at Peter’s relapse into prejudice.

Peter, of all people, fell back into favoring Jewish Christians. Even Peter can mess up and fall prey to sinful partiality. Paul confronts Peter “to his face” when it was clear that Peter was avoiding the Gentile Christians at mealtime (Galatians 2:11–13).

Paul spends a great deal of time in his letter to the Galatians unpacking the tensions between Gentile and Jewish Christians. There was a Jewish sect of Christians called the “circumcision party” who were trying to include Jewish practices in with the gospel. In other words, “you have to follow Jesus and get circumcised, following the Jewish law.”

Paul was furious at this false teaching, and he could see the divisiveness it led to. Paul addressed these ethnic divisions and responded with the way to unity under Christ. This culminates in Paul’s famous proclamation: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 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” (Galatians 3:27–28).

Even the early church, led by people who knew Jesus, struggled with partiality. It wasn’t just ethnic prejudice that they wrestled with, but also the division of wealth and poor.

James addressed this particular issue in the strongest terms. James 2:1–13, in part, says, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”

If we show partiality and make distinctions, then we are not loving our neighbors well.

And, of course, who was the perfect example of loving his neighbors?

Only Jesus.

It’s not only a call for us as individual believers to love everyone with grace, but it also rings true of church bodies.

Reflect

Does your church show partiality? How can you change your local church for the better? If partiality does exist, to what extent? It will certainly hinder the gospel.

How can you change your habits to love your neighbors impartially?

Say a prayer of praise to the Lord for his love for you as you unpack these temptations and sins.