Does Jesus Discriminate?

What to Discriminate Against!                          By Kelly Durant          1-13-13

2 Today on the calendar is the Sunday when we celebrate cultures or better described, it is when we seek to reconcile cultural differences and this applies quite well in this great country where one in three people are a minority!

This special day is based around Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Thank God for the advancements of his marches in the 60s which affect us today as there is a little more equality and respect and laws were made to lift up the underprivileged. There is still a lot more that needs to be done though! Too bad there was not a Native American MLK; sadly before the time of TV, human rights and minority defenders were just persecuted and killed!

But think about it, the 1960’s were not so long ago! I was 5, some of you here were 20 and others -20 before birth, and we might often wonder, why did it take so many centuries in this country for someone to bring up this issue of in-equality and oppression and suppression? What it amounts to is few people are willing to fight for something that could cost them everything!

We should give credit where credit is due to the perseverance of Dr. MLK Jr. who was an evangelical Christian; he simply demanded that everyone live by the standards of our God of love to “love your neighbor as yourself”, and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Have you ever demanded that? 

3 That is the standard that we as Christians must live up to! The “others” includes e-v-e-r-y-one! If not, we are hypocrites and in Jn 4: 20 we read: If a man says, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? The punishment is eternal death for not loving God, Jesus, or your brother or any other person!

Discrimination is always a two-way street, coming from both sides, but one side is usually more in a position of power to abuse than the other side. Present in all races and cultures are hate, discrimination, rejection, oppression and the sins of people devoid of God’s understanding. Our job is to bring light to the dark places!

Discrimination has been, and still is, present in all countries amongst all races with one race against another, one political position against another, one religion against another, and one social class against another. These clashes provoke violence and death!

4 We have to take an honest look at all countries and nations and conclude that most all of them have virtually perpetrated class discrimination, race discrimination, sexism or gender discrimination, and eternal salvation-selection discrimination due to their ignorance or rejection of the Word of God in the Bible.

When we think of discrimination we usually only think of racism, but it also includes education levels classes, and much more. The most amazing thing is that Jesus, being Jewish, contrary to those of the culture of his day, proved Himself to be the most non-racist, non-prejudice all-inclusive person of all time and this unique quality has surpassed all the other religious teachings of the world. 

Jesus heart-warming love is convicting, challenging and supernaturally divine! No wonder about one billion people claim to follow Him, they desire His all-inclusive non-discriminatory love!

5 What are the best proofs of Jesus non-discrimination and acceptance of others? Consider all the controversial people he reverenced such as his own disciples, the Samaritan woman, the non-Jewish prostitute caught in the act of sin, and much more!

Jesus was an intelligent educated Jew in the Torah and he had a social status by race, and multicultural multilingual education that would put Him in a status well above all others around him, yet he was not arrogant, condescending or discriminatory like those similar to himself near him. He was revolutionary and different, reflecting how God is: He is loving and accepting of everyone!

Jesus was never discriminatory of races: He shared the gospel with all cultures and races in his region preaching that the Good Samaritan was God’s hero.

Jesus was never discriminatory against the social classes: He chose 4 poor fishermen and chose a rich tax collector, so he included every economic class!

Jesus was never discriminatory against the sexes: He had women followers and respected all women spending time with them teaching them and healing them.

6 Today different types of discrimination exist and here are just a few: Ageism, Caste Classism, Colorism, Genism, Heightism, Linguicism, Lookism, Mentalism, Racism, Rankism, Religionism, Sexism, Sexualism, Sizeism, and Weightism.

Most all of us experience rejection almost every day in some form or another and sometimes this provokes real lasting pain. How many of you believe you carry some scars from discrimination against you in your past? Raise your hands…

Isn’t it good to know God loves you and me and He accepts us all just as we are? After all He made each of us and God must love all kinds to make us so diverse!

7 But does God discriminate? Yes! God does reject evil which is a not product of His being, or holiness. The more holy and Godly a person is, the more appalled they are by the sin in their own lives and by the sin in the world. 

Jesus discriminated and rejected and condemned the hypocrites and those that would not accept His Word as truth! He cast out demons as well, so He did display a serious discrimination and rejection of evil and of destructive abusive behaviors!

But to those who accepted Him, they gained eternal life! Read…

 1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

8 God is a consuming fire, He is holy and anything unholy in his presence is burnt up! He is good and He rejects evil which is a product of rebellion and pride being the opposite and anti-thesis of what He is. Each of us should reject evil and discriminate against all destructive damaging behaviors as well. We must, as Jesus, play a role in exposing them, stopping them, and in bringing healing afterwards.  

Evil and good is manifested in different ways within all the races, sexes, but our role is to uphold God’s standards of non-discriminating love loving others to Him.

The purpose of God distinguishing and having a chosen people in the O.T. was to expose the evil in the tribes and cultures in that day that had horrible practices. God wanted his people to dominate with righteousness and holiness and He still wants his people extending the Kingdom of God of earth.   Exodus 23:23

For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.  

In the O.T. God had to impose dominion because the evil practices of these tribes and nations were horrible and what is shocking and horrible is still some of these practices continue today! By Satan's inspiration these tribes, races, and nations were practicing oppressive idolatry, human sacrifice, the murder of their own children, torture, rape, exploitations, slavery, bestiality, pedophilia, and making war on all their neighbors in order to kill, steal and burn everything for pleasure!

9 If the valiant men of God like Joshua and David hadn't gone on the attack to destroy these destroyers then these pagan people would have attacked and killed God’s people! There is a time for war and there is a time for peace. 

The purpose of God’s Christian people today is to influence and govern over others with fairness, equality, and love teaching non-discrimination upholding righteousness. Jesus opposed the hypocrites! And no one chooses their own sex, skin color, or status at birth. It is never justified that any one should ever harm, reject, or kill another person over these differences.

Killing is the ultimate discrimination as it is genocide and homicide, yet some religions and political philosophies today teach that it is acceptable to practice the killing of the ones who are considered as the “undesirables” or the ones identified as enemies. Jesus answer to this was in his inclusive non-discriminatory statement to, “Love your enemies!” He exposed sin, but the repentant ones had mercy!

10 Obviously a murderer of any kind does not know God who is in pure essence love! 1 John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him

But God is always fair and just, not all the tribes near Israel were enemies. God told his people to respect the respectful ones.  Exodus 23:9 Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.  Wouldn’t it be great if all nations practiced this precept?

Despite the world-wide Christian influence, however, you and I may sadly deduct that discrimination will continue to plague the world since people, including many Christians, do not allow God’s love to break and re-make them totally into humble new creatures as Jesus is. So we have a fight ahead of us!

11Today is a perfect day to confess any sin you may have of disliking another person over their color, nationality, race, or sex, language or for any reason! It simply is not Christian, not of Jesus, and not like Jesus to discriminate and not to love everyone inclusively! It is not like the Salvation Army either which has in their mission statement that we serve “all without discrimination”!

 We must free ourselves with the truth from our past dark cultural-societal-traditions which carries the sins-of-the-fathers. These dark influences dominate people’s behaviors by default. But we have hope in Jesus to radically change!

You can ask God to help you to discern that which is evil in order to reject it. Each of us must use correct judgment to discriminate against all types of evil!   

If your past bad experiences or the bitterness of a friend or relative has passed onto you a prejudice or wrong attitude which causes you to discriminate unjustly, then desperately pray to be more like Jesus! Get free from hate with Jesus and love inclusively starting now! You can have a million friends but what for without love for all of them?