When I was growing up, I didn’t think I had a prejudiced bone in my body. We never had any conversations in our home that would reflect any degree of prejudice, so why would I think something like that? As I got older, however, I began to discover there were some attitudes in me that did not reflect God’s view of my fellow people and needed to be corrected by the Holy Spirit.

Being prejudiced is not of God and is in fact refuted by the Bible. James 2:1 says:

 “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.”

In the Renner Interpretive Version, this verse says:

“My dearest brothers and comrades, whom I cherish and treasure, you must not be a respecter of persons. That is, you must not have, hold and possess the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, and at the same time judge others or base your acceptance of them by what you see in their external appearance.”
—James 2:1, RIV

That is what prejudice is: pre-judgement. Though you’ve never met a certain person or have no experience with a certain group of people, you have a pre-judgment about them. It is an unreasonable dislike of a particular person or group of people or things, and it can strongly influence how people behave and interact with others, and God absolutely does not approve of it. 1 Samuel 16:7 says:

“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”

Clearly, then, God does not approve of prejudice, so we need to learn how to recognize it in ourselves and get it out.

The Prejudice Trap

Prejudice is often subconscious, and it can affect people’s behavior without them even realizing it. When people hold prejudicial attitudes toward others of a certain group, they tend to view everyone in that group as being the same, and when they hold these attitudes toward just one person, they tend to think that person is incapable of change. Without even realizing it, someone can start to take on stereotypical beliefs and negative behaviors towards another person or group, all because of prejudice that they fail to see in themselves.

Prejudice can manifest in a variety of ways, and it is important to refrain from them all. Racism is a prejudice that has unfortunately persevered throughout time. It is the egregious example, but prejudice sneaks into so many other areas as well, and we need to be aware so that we can recognize these areas and keep ourselves from prejudice.

There is often prejudice between socio-economic classes. Oftentimes, high-class or wealthy and powerful people see middle and lower class people as inferior or less smart, and on the other hand, middle and lower classes may view higher classes as arrogant and greedy. Here, we can see prejudice on both sides. The Bible describes a situation where, as a host, you might show socio-economic prejudice. It says:

“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 weareth 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?”
—James 2:2-4

The word “evil” in this verse is interpreted from a form of the word ponéros (πονηρός.) In the New Testament, ponéros illustrates that which is malicious or malignant, foul, hostile, vicious, and vile. It includes not only that which is dangerous to the physical body but that which is dangerous to the spirit and the mind. The word ponéros is often used in the New Testament in connection with the activity of demonic spirits, and it lets us know that wrongly judging people is devilish behavior and completely unacceptable among God’s people. Rather than be prejudiced against the impoverished person, we ought to give him the best seat in the house. This is the man who needs to hear the good news. The gospel is an economic game changer, so rather than push him over to the side because of how he looks, we need to give him a front seat in the house.

Prejudice has no Place in Heaven

Galatians 3:28 says:

“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.”

This verse makes it clear that there are no distinctions in Christ. Paul is very distinctly saying that the unity that all believers share in Christ transcends cultural distinctions. Paul addresses the church at Colossae, too, affirming that Christ unites all believers, regardless of their backgrounds, saying:

 “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”
—Colossians 3:11

Notice the distinctions Paul adds to these two lists. He was very directly addressing prominent prejudices of the time. First, he says there is “neither Greek nor Jew.” The pagan world loathed Jews. They regarded them as narrow-minded and bigoted because they only believed in one true God, compared to the pagans who had the open-mindedness to believe in a sundry of gods. On the other hand, the Jews found Greek-speaking pagans to be disgusting, sexually deviant, perverse idol-worshipers with no moral law. They especially disdained the Romans, who had forcibly occupied Jews’ territories. The repugnance Jews felt toward pagan Gentiles was so acute that they did all they could to keep distance between themselves and the pagans.

Next, Paul adds circumcision and uncircumcision to his list. “Uncircumcised” comes from the Greek word, akatomia (ἀκροβυστία). This was not simply another way of describing Jews and Gentiles, but, as used in Colossians 3:11, the word “circumcision” could also depict strict religious Jews as compared to non-religious Jews. In this verse, it seems Paul is depicting deeply religious Jews, who faithfully followed the law and saw themselves as superior to Jews who did not. The deeply religious Jews had little tolerance for the non-religious Jews, and the extreme hostility between them was so cold-blooded that these groups seldom met civilly.

Paul then mentions bond and free. The system of slavery was so entrenched in that society that even back in the classical period, Aristotle wrote that those born as slaves had inferior intellects and were biologically designed to be slaves, and they should therefore be content to live in a subservient condition for the rest of their lives. This mindset is outrageous to us today, but at the time the perceived difference between bond and free was so stark that even if a slave was granted freedom, he or she was still considered inferior to others.

In saying that there was no distinction between male and female, Paul wrote one of the most revolutionary statements ever written at the time. In the first century, there were simply societal restrictions that were applied to women but not to men, denying women the same freedoms and protections that men had and reducing them to a lower state.

Paul goes on to list barbarians and Scythians. The term “barbarian” referred to anyone who spoke Greek or Latin poorly, earning them a reputation as uncultured and uncivilized. Yet even barbarians looked down on the Scythians, nomadic tribes regarded as the lowest of the low, “the barbarians of the barbarians.” It would have been laughable to imagine these groups socializing peacefully, much less becoming equal members of a spiritual community, but Paul boldly declared that in Christ, these stark divisions melted away. Suddenly, barbarians, Scythians, and all other people stood on equal footing as one body, supernaturally fused by the Spirit of God. In this breathtaking revelation, societal ranks vanish, and what remains is a unified family in Christ. Isn’t that astonishing?

We see a picture of this when Paul found himself at a table in Antioch with a wise group of people involved in the ministry. This wasn’t just any group; it was a striking mix of backgrounds. These were not people the old Paul, or Saul, would have respected and valued. There was Barnabas, a distant Levite Jew who grew up in Cyprus, likely away from strict religious customs. There was Simeon, and the Bible tells us he was “Simeon called Niger” (See Acts 13:1), which is the Latin word meaning black. Scholars speculate that this indicates Simeon was a black man from Africa and may have been a slave of a Roman family. There was also Lucius, a North African man, and Manaen, who was raised in Roman royal circles, likely alongside Herod the Tetrarch. Then there was Paul, with his prestigious education and Pharisaical background.

In the natural world, these individuals would never have sat together. Social, cultural, and racial divisions would have kept them apart. Yet here they were equal partners in the ministry, serving side by side. This was unheard of. It was because of this unlikely setting that Paul had his groundbreaking revelation: In Christ, distinctions of race, status, and background vanish. Jew, Gentile, slave, free, male, and female are all one in Christ.

Eliminate Your Prejudice

Since this article has so many details flying around already, I would recommend cutting this paragraph and just ending on the previous one. Reasoning below if you want to read it.

This would narrow the focus of the article to where prejudice’s place is in the church (answer: nowhere). The paragraph gives good information, but I just think It might be too much jumping around for an article

If we wanted to keep it (it being good information), I would at least recommend fleshing it out a little more. There is so much detail on every part of Paul’s list of prejudice, so it just seems awkward to then have a one paragraph closer that’s it’s own section because it just doesn’t quite fit into the previous one.