Christians have an opportunity to expand listening, learning, and interaction with those marginalized while also including those with positions of power and privilege (James 1:19). Jesus’ incarnational ministry is the pattern Christians must follow. He met the needs of the marginalized, those with power and privilege, and oppressors of His own people (Luke 7:1-10; John 4:46-54). Jesus also healed, accepted dinner invitations, and answered the questions of those with privileged positions in Jewish society (Luke 8:40-55; 19:1-10; John 3:1-8). He embodied perfect balance by preaching and practicing the ethics of God’s Kingdom towards men and women of all ages, various careers, ethnicities, social classes, and political/theological affiliations. He listened to them, met their needs to demonstrate He was Messiah and God in the Flesh according to the Scriptures (Luke 24:44). Acts offers evidence how Christians followed Jesus’ pattern of ministry by meeting physical and spiritual needs of those who were marginalized (3:1-10; 5:12-16; 6:1-7; 16:16-24) and those centered in both Jewish and Roman societies (4:1-22; 8:9-40; 10:30-43; 16:11-40; 17:22-34; 22:30-26:32).
All Christians should be given space (by leaders and lay members) to voice concerns, hurts, and trauma, while having confidence they’ll be heard, seen, and loved by God and His people. This creates opportunity to apply comfort to the afflicted (2 Cor 1:3-7) while protecting wounded hearts from further damage caused by initial responses that are dismissive, filled cynical clichés, and obsessive fact-checking. Yet, Christians must not be naïve assuming one’s ethnicity safeguards them from lying. Human hearts are deceitful (Jer 17:9) and remember Paul rebuked Christians for bearing false witness, gossip, and slander (Eph 4:25-32). Christians must yield our dependence on God the Holy Spirit who provides discernment to those He indwells to hear, listen, and respond in step with kingdom ethics when sinful speech is shared (Matt 18:15-20; Gal 6:1-2). At the same time, spaces for processing hurt and trauma, at bare minimum, must be created amongst God’s people in their local church as a means of embodying the “one another’s” found throughout the New Testament.
Being ‘Colorblind’ is Not Being Truthful
Claim: Both the law and people are not colorblind.
Biblical Response: The Bible never says God is colorblind. Inside the human race exist multitudes of ethnicities God created out of His genius for His glory. Ethnic diversity is God’s idea. He has the patent on it and licensed His Church to the marketing strategy for it. The City of God is populated by a diversity of ethnicities who’re present with our God (Acts 1:8; Eph 2:11-22; Rev 7:9; 21:24-26). Since the local church is a preview of heaven Jesus commands His followers to make disciples of every ethnicity (Matt 28:19-20).
Often Galatians 3:28 is used to platform colorblindness among Christians. Paul identifies three visible realties about humans God saves, their ethnicity, gender, and social class. His reason is to show off God’s ability and desire to save humans no matter their bloodline, sex, or financial wherewithal. Notice how Paul does not say Christians become asexual or gender neutral at conversion, nor does he advocate negligent financial stewardship, willful unemployment, or a dissolving of class for Christians after conversion. If gender and social class don’t disappear at conversion, why would Christians wrongly imply ethnicity does? Due to my Mexican/Native Indigenous ethnic heritage Ethnocentric cults have called me; “Black Man, God, ALLAH”[1], A Sephardic Hebrew from the Tribe of Issachar[2], and a Moor whose God is Allah[3] yet, only among Christians have I experienced being told my ethnicity is not seen, not part of my identity in Christ, and something to be seen as worldly.
An honest interpretation of Galatians 3:28 recognizes affirming ethnicity is a safeguard to prevent ignoring or idolizing it. Affirming ethnicity is not usurping one’s identity in Christ instead, it’s the truthful acknowledging of a God-given attribute some in the church have opted to ignore to apply colorblindness. Since ethnicity is present in the eternal state (Rev 21:24-26) and since Scripture does not reduce ethnicity to skin color, the long-standing man-made “Black/White” binary wall of division in America can come crumbling down, starting in the church!
