My original plan with these posts was to make one per week. However, the murder of George Floyd has moved me to write this post a little early. You see, this murder is the straw that has finally broke the camel's back. It has brought to the fore all the pent up frustration of an entire race of people who have been thoughtlessly disadvantaged by others. Although no-one can ever condone violence or damage to property or vandalism, as they are completely inexcusable, we have to understand and appreciate the reasons behind the protests. They are completely justified. There is no doubt in my mind that institutionalised racism very firmly exists. There is no doubt in my mind that preconceptions and biases and profiling and stereotypes and tropes are all entirely real. There is no doubt at all that Blacks and Asians have suffered disproportionately from exceptionalist, supremacist attitudes from we white people. It's real. It's not imagined or perceived. It's happening. And we have to deal with it. Although personally I am deeply sorry for all the wrong my race has committed, I know it's not enough. Words can never be enough. There must be change. There must be what we Christians call repentance. But there is one group of people who should model what a society without all of these evils looks like. We don't always get it right, but when we get it wrong we should have the humility to admit it and the courage to change. That group is the church. Yes, you read it correctly. The group that should provide a model of what society should look like after we rid it of racism is the church. No, I've not taken leave of my senses. Why do I believe this? Among many others, and the entire thrust of Biblical theology, these three short verses: So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26-28 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/gal.3.26-28.NIVUK But before we explore this short passage, we need to get one thing straight. I don't pretend that this will be easy for many people to take. However, this is a necessary truth we must believe before we move on. Do you know what it is? There is no such thing as a superior colour, race, language or culture. There is simply no evidence to support it. And there definitely is no evidence for it in the Bible. Do you want to know how I can say something like this? Simple. Right at the very beginning there was one people group with one language and one culture. There we find this statement: So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/gen.1.27.NIVUK There is simply no evidence anywhere of this image being distorted, marred or otherwise ruined by being a different colour, or being formed differently. In the very last book of the Bible we see this: After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7:9 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rev.7.9.NIVUK A great multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language, and not one of them ranked. Not one more or less important than the other. But what about the Jews? They believed themselves to be superior because they received a unique revelation of God and His glory. The Messiah Himself was born a Jew. They believed that everyone who was not a Jew was unclean. We find these verses in Deuteronomy: See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? Deuteronomy 4:5-8 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/deu.4.5-8.NIVUK But these verses should not be misunderstood. The Jews were unique not because of what they had done, but because of what God had done for them, as Moses goes on to explain: Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. Deuteronomy 9:6 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/deu.9.6.NIVUK It is true that the Jews received a special revelation. But as for superiority and considering other people as unclean, God blew that out the window when He gave the apostle Peter a special vision: The voice spoke to him a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ Acts 10:15 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/act.10.15.NIVUK Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. Acts 10:34-35 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/act.10.34-35.NIVUK Even the Council of Jerusalem, where the decision was taken to welcome non-Jewish believers (recorded in Acts 17), imposed only the absolute minimum of restrictions on non-Jewish believers and allowed them to express their worship and adoration of God in a culturally appropriate way. Galatians is a book which is fundamentally about how Jewish believers from Jerusalem had invaded the church in Galatia, in modern day Turkey, and tried to tell then that they had to be Jewish to follow Christ, even demanding that they be circumcised. Paul was furious in his response to them - and he himself was a Jew. He used very dramatic language: You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Galatians 3:1 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/gal.3.1.NIVUK As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! Galatians 5:12 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/gal.5.12.NIVUK The Jews had far more reasons to force their culture onto former pagan believers that we could ever have. Yet Paul was extremely strong in telling them they had no right to do it. Instead, Christianity is built on a fundamental leveller for all believers everywhere: This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:22-24 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rom.3.22-24.NIVUK In fact, to the culturally and racially diverse church in Philippi, Paul writes these words: Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:1-4 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/php.2.1-4.NIVUK So if there is any narrow-minded supremacist, be they black, white or all shades in between, who tries to use the Bible to justify their ignorance, then they are one hundred percent wrong. None of us is superior to anyone else. That includes race, colour, gender, financial situation or any other potential cause for pride. We are all equal before the Lord: equally sinful and equally in need of salvation. A number of years ago I was visiting the monument to General Douglas MacArthur at Palo Beach, just south of Tacloban City, with my in-laws. MacArthur both served and led the people of the Philippines and is regarded as a hero for rescuing them from the Japanese during the Second World War. While we were parked not far from a petrol station, a local kid caught sight of me, the pasty-faced guy in an otherwise brown-skinned Asian group, and yelled, "Hey, whitey!" I almost fell over laughing. You see, I was brought up in a neighbourhood saturated in ignorance. There was a boy in that neighbourhood who had a slightly darker pigment to his skin and he was labelled with an extreme racial insult - despite being as Scottish as the rest of us. Had the Asian kid from Tacloban been in my neighbourhood when I was growing up, I have no doubt that he would have faced a torrent of vicious racial abuse, he and his family. And the worst he could come up with was "Hey, whitey!" You see, that's it. Many of us white people have to admit that we have been raised in cultural islands, far from people of other races and colours. This has led to us being ignorant and uneducated, and has provided fertile ground for unintentional racism and bias. This is my background. The only time I ever saw a person with differently coloured skin was on the few occasions my parents took me 375 miles south to London to visit relatives or in rare visits to Chinese or Indian restaurants. I've had to confront this aspect of my own childhood on several occasions to rid myself of the exceptionalism and superiority complex that it brings. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that my parents deprived me in any way of a rich multi-cultural experience. I'm simply saying that's how my neighbourhood was back then in the 1980s. But the same can be said of anyone. If we are not exposed to other cultures and peoples, then we will all develop incorrect attitudes that need to be resolved. So let's not go along with the scare-mongering that comes along with migration and immigration. If anything the growth of other nationalities around us is doing us a huge favour. It is demolishing ignorance. It is promoting awareness and education. It is making us better people, more able to make an impact on the world stage. It is causing us to confront and break down our wrong attitudes and thinking about other people. If we let it. This passage lists three things that every Christian has in common, regardless of race, colour, gender or class. The first is that WE ARE PART OF THE SAME FAMILY.
We are part of the same family So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. Galatians 3:26 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/gal.3.26.NIVUK We visited a rich family many years ago while our daughter was small. When we entered their mansion just outside of Cebu City, we noticed something different. They had something akin to a small pen without a roof in the living room. And there, in the pen, was a little girl. She seemed to have picked up none of the social skills of a child her age. When they let her out, they had to be really careful and keep her under strict control because she would climb on anything and anyone. She was the absolute definition of a handful. And they had offered to take care of her for a while. Her parents had gone abroad to work and the rich family had stepped in to rear her while they were gone. They treated her well, took care of her, fed her and cared for her, where otherwise she would have been abandoned. They welcomed her into their family, no matter how wild she behaved. Informal adoptions happen a lot in the Philippines. There is little in the way of a formal social care structure, so families often come to an arrangement where the richer people will take care of poorer children and rear them as their own. The same type of arrangement existed in Paul's day and he uses it as a picture of how God has put His family together. What I am saying is that as long as an heir is under age, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were under age, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘ Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. Galatians 4:1-7 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/gal.4.1-7.NIVUK The picture of us as adopted children is also used in other letters written by Paul: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. Ephesians 1:3-6 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/eph.1.3-6.NIVUK The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘ Abba, Father.’ Romans 8:15 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rom.8.15.NIVUK We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:22-25 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rom.8.22-25.NIVUK
You see, an adopted child has exactly the same rights in law as a naturally born child. What Paul is saying by using this picture is that God has chosen us - all of us - to be a part of His family, and as much a part of His family as His own Son Jesus Christ. All of us, regardless of our ethnicity, nationality, tribe or identity, are brought into the same family. There is, as Paul stated to the church in Rome, no difference between us. We all hold exactly the same standing in God's family. This was promised even from hundreds of years before Jesus walked the earth: A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. Psalms 68:5-6 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.68.5-6.NIVUK
Understand this: when you believe in Jesus Christ and entrust your life to Him, you become part of a family. And not just any family. You are part of a worldwide family. A family with members from every tribe and tongue and language and nation. A family where there is no place for discrimination or bigotry or profiling or exceptionalism. Only a fool would treat his own family that way. This is a family where everyone is equal: equally as sinful, equally in need of grace, equally as saved by that grace. That is why the church should be the best example of a united society. Because race is simply not a differentiator for us. Race is not important. The grace of God that calls us into one family is colour-blind and culture-neutral. If we truly seek to be like Christ then we will be too. So since we are part of the same family, Paul goes on to tell us that WE WEAR THE SAME CLOTHES.
We wear the same clothes
At first glance this seems like a very strange thing to say. Despite the attempts of big fashion companies, we do not all dress the same. Our national dress alone varies quite widely. As a Scottish guy, I know that full well. I was married in the Philippines in Scottish national dress. The church where we got married had a missions event the weekend before and I decided to turn up in Scottish national dress. They had a parade, and out I came, in front of thousands of people, wearing a Scottish kilt. I'm glad I wore it then. The pastor who was to officiate at our wedding saw it for the first time and laughed really hard. I'm glad he laughed then and not at our wedding. His reaction would really not have looked good in our wedding pictures. We all wear different clothes. It's part of how we express ourselves. So how can I say that we wear the same clothes? What does the verse say? for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. But what does that mean? Another letter Paul wrote, this time to the church in Ephesus, could give us a clue: You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/eph.4.22-24.NIVUK
Or to the Romans: And do this, understanding the present time: the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. Romans 13:11-14 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rom.13.11-14.NIVUK
You see, the clothing here speaks of change. It speaks of us having taken off the evil things we used to do and putting on the deeds we want to do. It speaks of us having a new status, a new place in life. Clothes in those days, just as now, spoke of your place in society. Paul is using clothes here to talk about the transformation Jesus has carried out in all of us. And we have this in common. Regardless of our race, our gender or our class, we have all been transformed by Christ. We all have a powerful testimony of how God found us and changed us, and is changing us still. This is a journey we are all on. We cannot hurt or exclude or discriminate against a fellow believer because we have so much in common. Part of that transformation affects the way we relate to each other. We cannot be judgemental because we do not want to be judged by God. We cannot hold grudges because we have been forgiven by God. We cannot be biased in favour of one group or another because God is not biased against us. All of us at one time were sinners. We all got it wrong. These verses talk of how the grace of God has provided us with the opportunity to take off our unrighteousness, our failings, our wrongdoing, and wear instead the righteousness of Christ. We share across all races our failures and our means of salvation. Sin and redemption in Christ are the greatest levellers that mankind has ever known. If you have taken off your sin and put on Christ's righteousness, don't put on the old ill-fitting clothes you once wore. Set aside the sinful stereotyping and discrimination and exceptionalism you once wore with pride. Put on and keep on Christ's righteousness. Then the world will truly see that you are a child of God. So we are part of the same family and wear the same clothes. Lastly WE ARE UNITED IN THE SAME CHRIST.
We are United in the same Christ
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Or, as Paul put it elsewhere: Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Colossians 3:1-11 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/col.3.1-11.NIVUK
Christ is all. In other words, He is all that counts. I have to spend some time here to recognise my good friends who attended the Evangelical Church on Mircea Voda Street in Pitesti, Romania. This is a tiny church - just a few members. They sing mostly old songs. The women in the church still wear headscarves. But their welcome is absolutely extraordinary. You see, I was a missionary there. I was also learning Romanian. One family in particular - the Voiculescus - took me in and treated me like a member of their family. I will never forget that. After months of effort and headaches, my Romanian started to improve. One evening after church I was in their house with some other young people from the church. We were just doing what young people do: sitting around laughing and joking and playing. I felt like I was no different to them. Suddenly the realisation hit me: I was the only foreigner in the room. Their acceptance of me had grown to the level where I didn't feel like an outsider. I may have come from two thousand miles away. I may have only recently grasped the language. But there I was, in their midst, having a good time like an old friend. I had never felt acceptance like it. And that challenged me, and still does. This verse does not advocate the idea that we somehow lose our distinctiveness and difference. To understand it that way you would have to rip it entirely out of context. What it means is that the labels of Jew, Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, male, female, although they exist, are not important anymore. We do not find ourselves boxed into them. Why? Because our primary identity is not found in them anymore. First and foremost we are in Christ. That matters infinitely more than any other label society, or even we ourselves, could ever apply. As Christians, we are united with every other Christian across the globe.
If newcomers arrive into our country to further their livelihood and provide for their children, then we must recognise that we would do exactly the same if we were in their situation and do everything we can to help them integrate into our way of life. We've had a duty to do so for thousands of years:
‘Do not ill-treat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.
Exodus 22:21 NIVUK
‘Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt. Exodus 23:9 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/exo.23.9.NIVUK
The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:34 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/lev.19.34.NIVUK
He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Deuteronomy 10:18-19 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/deu.10.18-19.NIVUK
Let me explain this even further. Paul explains how God has arranged His church: Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. And so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/1co.12.12-14.NIVUK
Each culture brings in particular sensitivity to different issues, gives us a different perspective and new experiences. The more cultures we have in our churches, the greater our opportunities to grow as people and as believers, particularly in regard to world mission. Every believer, without exception, has an important part to play in the Body of Christ. But what about those who are not believers? Read what Jesus said to Nicodemus: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.3.16-17.NIVUK
If we show no love to someone because of the colour of their skin or because of their nationality or culture or any other superficial characteristic, how will they see the love of God in us? In 1993 I started University. There was a woman there from an Arab nation who was clearly there because of money. Her English was poor. She wasn't able to type well on an English keyboard. She had enrolled in Computer Science. The rest of the class made fun of her because at the end of every lecture she would raise her hand and stammer "Si-cuse me!" at the lecturer and ask for help. No-one expected to see her back for second year. I went to Romania in the summer of 1994. Suddenly I was the foreigner who felt out of place and couldn't speak the language. It wasn't funny anymore. I returned to university in October 1994 a changed man. I enlisted to help international students find their feet in Scotland. I went with them on excursions. And then I saw the Arab lady. I learned her name was Khawla. I slowly approached her and asked if she needed help. She was very hesitant at first. She was an Arab Muslim lady who came to university wearing a headscarf. I was a Scottish Christian man. But I gradually won her confidence and we began studying together. Two years later she obtained her degree and received it with the same level of joy and celebration others might reserve for a PHD. Even she had thought she wouldn't make it. She was in no doubt that our study sessions had contributed to it. I had the greatest time of my university career meeting students from across the world and making friends with them as if the nationality on their passports was nothing. I see no reason why churches can't have the same experience now. In Christ, there is no 'us and them'. Labels are meaningless except for one thing: 'a follower of Jesus Christ'. The great variety of people gathered around His throne is a tiny piece of heaven on earth to be warmly celebrated, and the more variety, the better. There is no doubt that the church has not always understood this fact. Our behaviour towards people of other races as at times been far from what it should have been. It has been worse when we take into consideration the times when we've arrived as part of an invading, conquering force, such as with the Crusades or the Conquistadors or the conquest of the Americas or our treatment of the Aborigines in Australia. Some have even used Christianity as a cover for disgusting crimes against others. We have to confess this and show by our actions that we are conscious of how wrong it was. However, the failings of the church through the ages should not detract from what the Bible teaches. Every Christian has three things in common: we are part of the same family, we wear the same clothes and are united in the same Christ. If we understand this and fully apply it then there is no room for any expression of racial or cultural superiority or exceptionalism. Instead, in humility we will seek to learn from each other and grow together as human beings. I am proud of the fact that I led a team of ten people in Romania that came from eight different countries. When I remember how people reacted to our variety as we did our work, it makes me smile even now. "How is this possible?" they would ask. "How is it that you can come from so many different countries and yet you still work together?" Our nations and cultures were divided then. They are still divided now. There can be no more powerful witness to the uniting power of the Gospel as when all God's people come together as one and declare the love of Christ together. After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ Revelation 7:9-10 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rev.7.9-10.NIVUK
May our worship truly be a vision of heaven on earth and a real beacon of hope for a world that writhes in division and separation. May our unity be a true reflection of a life without racism, exceptionalism or supremacy. May we truly be the people we were meant to be. Because this is our calling. And nothing else will do.
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