“So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all),” (Acts 10:34–36, ESV) Prejudice is much criticized, and people are marginalized if they show ‘prejudice.’ What is a prejudice? It is a preconceived opinion that is not based on fact. I am reminded of the story of the family that had a tradition that they always cut their Christmas ham in half and cooked it in two separate pieces. Finally, someone realized this was only a family tradition because the grandmother did not hage a pot big enough to cook a whole ham. So, for such a simple and non-sensical reason, the family had a generational prejudice against whole hams. We are prejudiced to some degree against that which we do not understand or that which is different from what we know or are accustomed to experiencing. So, we should not to expect to encounter a world where prejudices do not exist – everyone has them in one way or another. BUT – and this is a big but – we need to know – we must know that every person on this planet, regardless of where they are from, what they look like, and what their customs are – they are created by God for a relationship with God and Jesus Christ died to pay for their sins completely – just as he has done for each of us. So God has told us to go the ends of the earth and proclaim the good news (the loving, Christ centered truth of life) to all people of all ethnicity and backgrounds – sharing the truth that God so loves each person that he gave his Son to die in their place that each of them might be made right with God by believing on that Son as a gift from God which we receive by faith alone in Christ Jesus alone.
