THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. " (John 5:39)

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 29, AUGUST 18, 2002

PREJUDICE  

            “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.  For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, You sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and becomes judges with evil motives?  Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?  But you have dishonored the poor man.  Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?  Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?  If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.  But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”  (James 2:1 – 9)  

            What is James addressing?  The phrase, “an attitude of personal favoritism” is translated from only one word in the original language which literally meant  “to take face”.  It is rendered “partiality” in verse 9.  It suggests the conclusions we draw, not from the facts about a person, but from our consideration of who that person is.  To illustrate this point, many times a teacher who is trying to be utterly fair and to guard against any “partiality”, will block out the name of the student while grading papers.  In this way they assure that what was done, and not who did it, will determine the grade given.  

            In 1 Timothy 5:21, we read, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.”  The word, “bias” is rendered “prejudice” in the American Standard Version and that better expresses the idea in our language of today.  Prejudice comes from the prefix “pre” meaning “before” and the root “judicium” meaning “judgment”.  Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, defines prejudice as “pre-judging, preferring one person, another being put aside, by unfavorable judgment due to partiality.”  Webster defines it as “an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics.”  

            To put it simply, “an attitude of personal favoritism”, “partiality”, “bias” or “prejudice”, is pre-judgment.  It can manifest itself in so many ways.  For instance, it can be found being based upon a person’s financial status.  This is the specific area that James was writing about.  Is an individual poor or wealthy?    It can be manifested on the basis of appearance.  I am talking about someone who looks a little different, perhaps they are scarred or deformed in some way or a have some unusual mannerism that sets them apart.  We have all known someone who may have been a little bit different in looks or actions, and we have all heard the jokes about such a person.  Folks can be awfully cruel .  

            Prejudice also rears its ugly head on the basis of intellect.  There is a tendency to make unwarranted judgments about people if we think they are not as intelligent as we are, or if they are not as well educated as we are.  It is also found on the basis of sex.  There are those who think that women are inferior to men, and there are those who think that men are inferior to women.  We see it based on religion as well.  Some groups hate Catholics, others hate Jews. Some hate all Muslims, and on and on it goes.  Now understand that we are to hate every false way, but not the people themselves.  Pre-judgment because of what a person believes is wrong.

Obviously, prejudice is manifested on the basis of race as well.  Racial prejudice is not something new.  It has been around a very long time and it did not begin with the white and black issue.  No greater example of prejudice can be found than the prejudice that existed between the Jew and the Gentile in the time of our Lord.  It had existed for some 1500 years.  The Jews considered the Gentiles as base, unclean barbarians.   

            Peter was a man who had been born and schooled as a Jew.  He also had this Jewish prejudice toward all Gentiles.  In fact, it was so strong that the Holy Spirit gave Peter a direct vision, not once but three times, in order to get him to enter into the house of Cornelius,  a Roman Centurion of Caesarea .  The conclusion was so clear and so simple, “God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right, is welcome to Him” (Acts 10:34 – 35).   So strong was the racial prejudice of the Jews that when Peter went back to his fellow Jewish Christians, they said, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them” (Acts 11:3).  In their eyes that was a terrible thing to do.  Peter described the whole event for them, told them how he had six witnesses with him and how he had arrived at the conclusion that he did.  God does not judge a man according to his race, color, or nationality and Peter learned that we better not do it either.  

            In Galatians 2:11 – 14, we see that Peter had been eating with Gentiles.  Some Jewish Christians came and Peter withdrew himself from the Gentiles, causing other Jewish Christians to do the same.  The reason Peter did this was because he feared that some of the Jewish Christians would not accept his actions because of their prejudice against Gentiles.  Paul stated that Peter was to be blamed and he rebuked him.  Peter had sinned.  He withdrew his company because of racial prejudice and he was wrong.

                        (To be continued…..)        Greg Litmer