To illustrate how minorities are to be treated, Jesus compared himself to a stranger who is invited into a family (Mt 25:35). Today, this would parallel inviting a visitor to your church, who is not only a first-time guest (stranger) but also someone who looks very different from you to your family Sunday lunch—even though they appear to be outside your social context.
Jesus taught that kind acts such as feeding, clothing, caring for the sick, visiting prisoners were all acts of love toward him because he is the ultimate stranger who has no place to call home. The alien is looking to be invited into one’s inner social circle and to be accepted as a welcomed guest and friend. Here we discover the primary biblical principle for treating minorities. That principle is divine love. God accepts us, who are alien to him, and calls us friends (Jn 15:15).
As early as the writing of Leviticus, Moses wrote that the alien was to be taken in as a native-born and to be loved as you love yourself (Lev 19:34). Moses commanded the Hebrews to practice the principle of divine sacrificial love. Jesus’ teaching on the treatment of the disenfranchised is an elaboration on the principle that God willingly and sacrificially loved us. According to Jesus, there is no greater command than to love God and love your neighbor, in this case, we are to love minorities as we love ourselves (Lev 19:18; Mt 22:37-40).
In light of what the Scriptures teach about the treatment of aliens (minorities), three important first steps will take the Christian a long way down the road in eradicating personal racism.
Christians are aliens
God and his people have, in the past, experienced racism in the form of living like an alien on foreign soil. The truth of the matter is that Christians are citizens of two worlds. This world is not our home. Just as Abraham left his home for Canaan, so one day believers will leave this earth for a permanent heavenly home (Heb. 11:9,10). In a real sense, Christians are aliens no matter where they live on earth. Where or not they are surrounded by people who look, talk, and believe as they do, the earth is a temporary housing project. This reality should motivate believers to treat people groups who are disenfranchised or treated unjustly because they are a minority in society with understanding, sympathy, mercy, and compassion. Seeing life through the eyes of someone who feels like a stranger can make a person more sensitive to the plight of minorities.
Love aliens
The Scriptures command, not just suggest, that aliens (minorities) be treated with divine love. The Hebrew term for loving the stranger is “Awhab” (Lev 19:34). This Hebrew word connotes a deep affection for another as would exist between a married couple. The Greek term for loving the stranger is “Agape” (Mt 22:39). It too implies a deep affectionate devotion toward another. When Moses commanded the Hebrews to treat aliens as native-born it meant to include them into the most intimate of social contexts—their families.
Racism is a personal sin
Racism begins as a personal sin, and through fear and other unhealthy influences, it can evolve into corporate and national sins (as was the case with the Hebrew’s slavery in Egypt). Modern forms of slavery, bigotry, racism, intolerance, exclusion, injustices, and other ways in which minorities are poorly treated are areas of social concern that require an examination of ourselves in light of what God’s Word says about how we are to treat aliens. Self-examination, in light of God’s commands as to how aliens are to be treated, will often mean there is a need for repentance for past racially motivated and improper behaviors toward minorities. It may further include if racism has evolved into a corporate discriminating culture, that we as a group, community, and nation need to ask for forgiveness. This is a significant key to eradicating racism. Forgiveness is the biblical healing means by which racism can be reconciled and reversed.
Hope for racists
Perhaps the most encouraging thought in the Bible regarding aliens is that on the second return of Jesus, this time as Judge, those who were once racist but who repented and believed in Christ will be counted among the redeemed (Isa 11:10-11). Jesus reaches out his hand for a second time to reclaim people who were once racist (the Assyrians and Egyptians who once oppressed the Israelites will be redeemed). In Christ, there is hope of forgiveness for the sin of racism. In Christ, there is power to unite people who once felt bigotry toward each other. Jesus will one day unite and raise up an ethnically diversified group of people from throughout the world and call them all his family (Rev 14:6). After all, there is truly only one race, that is the human race.
Cover photo from: African Chess Pieces
https://www.stockfreeimages.com/2531485/African-chess-army.html
