Home
> Christian Bible Studies
> Questions from Bible Readers
> Friendship
How can I reach out to people who differ from me in habits, faith, culture, or race?
Realize believers are all one in Christ.
Galatians 3:26-29
It's a human tendency to put people in categories and then classify the people in those categories as being very different from each other. The result is stereotyping. The problem with stereotyping is that it causes you to prejudge and even limit others because of your own preconceived notions, rather than relate to them as unique individuals created by God in his image.
In Galatians 3:26-29, Paul dealt with three ways in which we often tend to categorize each other: race, class, and gender. Paul declared. "You are all one in Christ Jesus" (3:28). How does this belief in equality play itself out in real relationships?
It fosters a respectful attitude that recognizes the uniqueness, mystery, and potential of every human being. And it reminds us that no matter what differences we observe, we hold the most important things in common: our relationship as sisters and brothers in God's family. (See also John 4:4-26; Romans 3:21-31; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Colossians 4:2-6.)
Good Words to Remember:
There is neither Jew now Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
Today's Challenge:
How do you treat those who are of a different race, class, or gender?
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian Bible Studies.
| |
|
