What is the value of a person? Are there inborn qualities that make some of more value than others? Are there things we can do to either increase or decrease our value?
The Lord says the value of each soul is priceless- even an entire world, is far less valuable than just one soul (Matthew 16:26). Thomas Jefferson was brilliantly accurate when he wrote in our Declaration of Independence “All men are created equal.” That truth is indeed self-evident. We are born equal in value. And yet it is just as self-evident that what one does with one’s life affects one’s worth in God’s sight. Some become indispensable to God by choosing to cleanse themselves from wickedness becoming “…a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master” (2 Timothy 2:21). Others start out useful, and are as salt in the world, but may later choose to “…become tasteless”, at which point God says, “It is no longer good for anything” (Matthew 5:13).
So while it can be said that in a sense, even a dark, lost soul is priceless, we are judged exclusively on the basis of what we do and just how well we care for our own priceless soul.
Being judged on the “content of one’s character” is fair because having good character is an equal opportunity for all. No matter one’s station in life or environment, one can choose to be a person of integrity. “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God” (Romans 2:9-11). This is how God judges, but how do we judge one another? And why do some prejudge before the facts are in? Often prejudice springs from a desire to feel superior without doing the work and making the sacrifices involved in the blood, sweat and tears of building character. Prejudice is the lazy man’s highway to self worth.
Why is prejudice wrong?
First of all, prejudice is wrong, not because we are never suppose to judge. If fact, we are commanded to judge. Yet we are directed to “…judge with righteous judgment" (John 7:24). To judge as God judges, is really to say, “That behavior is wrong, because the Eternal Judge said it is wrong”. Judgment, including pre-judgment on any other basis is flat out sin. “…if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:9).
- Prejudice is wrong because it is ungodly. God does not show partiality. "I most certainly understand now that 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). Obviously, since God shows no partiality, if we want to be more like Him, to be godly, we also must show no partiality.
- Prejudice is wrong because it is not treating others the way you want to be treated. You want to be hired on the basis of how qualified you are for a position, not by how pretty the other girl was who also applied. You want to be welcomed into any neighborhood that your hard work and good stewardship affords you, not to be automatically suspect because of your ethnicity. You want your children to be liked by their teacher and other children for their kind and friendly nature, not by how high they score on an IQ test. You want to have friends who genuinely enjoy your company, not friends who don’t want to be seen with you because you are not as financially successful as they are. Or, if you are wealthy, you don’t not want friends who merely tolerate your presence, and feign friendship in hopes you will somehow raise their “stock”.
- Prejudice is wrong because it is not fair. We are aghast at the false, Calvinistic idea that God, before the foundation of the world, predetermined whom He would accept and whom He would reject eternally, irrespective of how each lives. “How unfair!” is our retort. Yet is not one who holds even private prejudices guilty of this attitude when one decides the value of another irrespective of their behavior? Any time someone is shown partiality, someone else must is treated unfairly.
- Prejudice is wrong because it does not value what God values.
- Man values physical beauty. God values the”… unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit”. 1 Peter 3:4
- Man values material wealth. God values diligence, stewardship, and generosity. (1 Timothy 6:18)
- Man values pedigree. God values those who choose to become the spiritual children of faithful Abraham (Romans 4).
- Man values the ability to learn quickly. God values the determination to live wisely (Ephesians 5:15) - Prejudice is wrong because hate is ugly. Many reading this article have lived long enough to remember the Pre-Civil Rights Movement horror of lynching. This kind of hate is a picture of just how ugly and unfair prejudice can be. Indeed, it is the antithesis of every fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Prejudice is wrong because it does not show gratitude for our differences. One very important side point and statement of clarification needs to be made at this point. The same Bible that says “Love one another” also says to “hate every false way”. It is utterly offensive, as many in popular culture are doing today, to categorize those engaged in the “false way” of homosexuality with the morally neutral condition of being born as an ethnic minority within one’s country. Despite the relentless preaching of our twisted culture to “honor diversity”, good is still good and evil is still evil. We must love the diversity that is of God and hate the diversity that is of Satan. Who cannot but hate this sin that destroys both the body and soul of the priceless souls addicted to it? What about our differences not related to sin? How should be view those differences? “…there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:11). Each culture affords the opportunity to develop certain strengths, and these strengths are passed down in both nurture and nature. We have so much we can learn, both positively and negatively, from one another’s cultures. My husband and I were blessed to be able to adopt children of another race and see in them qualities that often (though not always) are common to their ethnicity- and we so enjoy those qualities in them! We’ve hosted around 14 Japanese exchange students over the years, and have learned to admire, among other things, how their culture honors their elderly. Years ago a Mexican friend who could barely speak English taught me to cook chili colorado, homemade tortillas, and guacamole. My Chinese neighbor, Dong, taught me how to cook spring rolls, pot stickers, and hum bow. My how bland the world would be without the lessons, foods, customs, and music of other cultures. Far beyond cooking lessons, we have so very much to learn from one another, and for that we should be grateful. We will always have differences, but Viva la Difference!
Cindy Dunagan
cindy@straightpathspress.com
Author of the Journaling Toward Moral Excellence series of journals for young writers, preteens, teenagers, and young adults.
www.straightpathspress.com.
Journaling Toward Moral Excellence
