‘…God is no respecter of persons.’ Acts 10:34 KJV
Prejudice is the product of a lazy mind. It’s contempt, prior to investigation. Your first impression of someone is incomplete and often inaccurate. Don’t assume your intuition is always right. Don’t make lasting decisions based on limited insights. Your success in life will be adversely affected by prejudice, fear and any form of discrimination you allow to colour your thinking. Jesus never determined a person’s worth based on their race, gender, financial status or appearance. He was comfortable in the presence of fishermen and tax collectors. He was at ease with the rich and the poor. He knew that every person He met had potential and He never looked down on them because of their past. Born to a mother who conceived Him as a virgin, He knew what it meant to have a questionable background and be subject to the rumour mill. But He rose above it. And He broke tradition. The Samaritans were considered such a lower class of people that Jews wouldn’t talk to them. But Jesus did. In fact, He went out of His way to meet with a five-times-married Samaritan woman, discussing the mysteries of worship with her and changing her life. When Peter, who struggled with prejudice, was called to introduce the Gospel to the first group of Gentiles, he had to acknowledge, ‘I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.’ That day God dealt with some of Peter’s deep-seated biases. And He will deal with yours too! If ‘God so loved the world’ but you don’t, how can you claim to be ‘godly’?
SoulFood: Hosea 11-14, Matt 27:27-32, Ps 25:8-15, Pr 10:1
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2012
