What does the Bible say about racism?

The New Meat Offering consisted of two loaves. The two loaves set forth how Jew and Gentile believers are bound together in this new and blessed association. Nothing less than this wonderful truth would make the Jew forget that he was a Jew religiously, or the Gentile that he was a Gentile "afar off," and in the warmth and glory of the conception of the Church in its relation to the Head in Heaven forget their long-time religious feud, than which none could be more bitter. This is a word that is needed to-day. The Church of God oversteps all frontiers, differences of language, differences in social position, colour of skin, and makes one all believers on the face of the earth in one blessed Christian fellowship. There is ever the tendency to limit the Church in one's mind to the country to which we belong, or the small section of Christians with whom we may walk.

We see in this striking passage how very definitely Jew and Gentile are blended together in one body IN CHRIST. There is a need that Christians should study this passage carefully. We may say that it concerns Jew and Gentile only, but there is a principle in this that can be applied today. The writer has had the privilege of visiting Christians in several foreign lands. He found the tendency to look at the assemblies in their own country as a separate entity, and found them asking the question, Why need we trouble as to what obtains in the way of Christian fellowship in other lands outside of our own? The writer felt deeply that the only way of counteracting this tendency is to pay attention to the teaching we have just been considering. We need to have engraved on our hearts the truth that there is one body and one Spirit and one hope of our calling. The church of God is one wherever Christians are found, whatever their nationality, language, social position, or colour of skin may be.

This is the truth of God regarding His people who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ. By the one spirit they have all been baptized into one body at conversion, no matter what their nationality or race, and now they are "one body in Christ." This was a fact in the apostle's day and it is still the divine truth today. God's Word does not say, "There was one body," or "There shall be one body," but "There is one body."

And even, spite of nationalities today, the oneness of mankind as evidenced in creation, and which cannot be destroyed by man’s wickedness, is declared in Scripture: “God … has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26).

"God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth" — another truth that unbelief disowns — that God is not only the maker but the Lord, the master and disposer, of all — "He dwells not in temples made with hands." Thus the apostle finds himself at issue with both the Gentiles and the Jews. "Neither is worshipped (served) with men's hands, as though he needed anything," — contrary to all religion of nature, wherever and whatever it may be. "Seeing he gives" (such is His character) "to all men life and breath and all things; and has made of one blood:" here again he is at issue with man's ideas, especially with those of Hellenic polytheism, for the unity of the human race is a truth that goes with that of the true God. It was seen among men that various races had each their own national god, and thus naturally the falsehood of many gods was bound up with and fostered the kindred pretension of many independent races of men. This was a darling idea of the pagan world. They held themselves to have sprung from the earth in some singularly foolish manner, at the same time maintaining that each was independent of the other. On the other hand, the truth which divine revelation discloses is that which man's mind never did discover, but, when propounded, at once brings conviction along with it. Is it not humbling that the most simple truth about the simplest fact should be entirely beyond the ken of the proudest intellects unaided by the Bible? One would think that man ought to know his own origin. It is just what he does not know. He must know God first, and when he does all else becomes plain. "He has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth."

More than this, He has made of one blood all nations of mankind, though He has distributed the nations in different quarters of the earth according to the times and boundaries He has before appointed. Jews and Gentiles are fundamentally the same, all nations on the same level; but human blood is totally different than that of other creatures, as their flesh is different (1 Cor.15:39). But God has dealt as He has with men that they might seek the Lord, if it may happen that they will feel after Him and find Him. Paul adds that He is not far from every one of us, indicating that if one honestly seeks God, God will reveal Himself.

Peter's opening words then are precious, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him." Evidently he had himself considered that God was a respecter of persons, for his education was such as to give Israelites a higher place in God's sight than all other nationalities. In the church of God all of this must be totally leveled; and God used this miraculous way of impressing such truth upon Peter.

It was truly wonderful to see Jew and Gentile believers forgetting the centuries-old animosity of their unconverted days, sitting down at the Lord’s table in happy fellowship. No animosity can be more hateful than that of religious’ flesh, but there it was seen to be replaced by LOVE in the Spirit. Social distinctions faded away in their adoration of Christ. We see Onesimus, the runaway slave, sitting at the same Lord’s table with Philemon, his owner and master. Converted through Paul when in chains in Rome, and sent back to his master, he was received “Not now as a servant [slave], but above a servant [slave], A BROTHER BELOVED” (Phile. 16). Here is communion without communism. Distinctions of race and place disappeared in the presence of their Lord. What a sight for heaven and earth. We read:

Well now, to come back to 1 Cor. 12, it says in verse 13, "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." Now I feel a constraint upon me to say what I am going to say. The great point here is that all, whether Jew or Gentile, are made of one mind — one spirit — for the setting forth of Christ. Now I want you to weigh what I am going to say, which is this, That although we here are not a company composed of Jew and Gentile, yet in this tent there are two quite different races, two different nationalities with different natural ideas, ways, and methods. In consequence of this I believe that we have an opportunity for the display of Christ, which scarcely any other people on the face of the earth enjoy. An opportunity, for instance, which the Christians have not in England. What have they in England? English Christians, in France French Christians, in America American. In America they have the opportunity, but as far as I know they do not generally avail themselves of it. The white and black races are not manifestly one in Christ. In South Africa the negroes form separate congregations. They are not one. We, in this country, of India, have a splendid opportunity of shewing out a little bit of the truth that was being pressed on the Corinthians at that time; that, no matter what the nationality, one spirit animates the whole. Let this be true, then the Jew no longer exhibits the Jew, or the Gentile the Gentile. It is no longer English and native: the natural tendencies are overpowered by a stronger power still, and instead of the display of what is national, Christ is displayed in all.

Meanwhile this line of things is seen in the conduct of saint with saint. When we are gathered in assembly, for instance, social and natural distinctions vanish. Employer and employed, master and servant, parent and child, may be there, but those relationships are entirely in abeyance for the moment. They meet as “in Christ.” There may be different nationalities in an assembly, but they are all one “in Christ,” “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free” (Col. 3:11). This is beautifully illustrated in the closing chapter, when the apostle writes of the erstwhile runaway slave, Onesimus, as “one of you,” that is “a faithful and beloved brother” in the assembly. We then get Luke, “the beloved physician.” What a contrast socially between the slave and the doctor? We get Jew and Gentile in this beautiful chapter blended together in the salutations.