Choosing a new paint color for the walls of your home can be a daunting task. After hours of watching HGTV, perusing decorating magazines, and Pinteresting, you have decided you want “green”. However, at the paint store, there are rows and rows of “green”, all with inviting names. You can move from the Irish inspired “shamrock” and “limerick” to the food inspired “rosemary” and “kiwi”, on to the outdoorsy “moss” and “spring grass”, to the comforting “calm” and the exhilarating “neon lime” . Now, imagine after several trips to and from the store, auditioning paint chips on your walls, and weighing the opinions of your family members, you select “soothing sage”. You present the beautiful, comforting, soft grey-green paint chip to the attendant at the paint counter. She looks at your carefully chosen, perfect color for your walls and asks, “So, do you want the white, black, red, or yellow?”
It would be ridiculous for a paint store to force every paint chip they sell into one of four colors. Yet this is what we do when we categorize mankind into races. We take the beautiful, unique, divinely inspired mix constituting a person, and force them into one of these four colors. Or maybe we add brown.
What does the Bible say about race?
The Biblical account of creation summarizes the origin of human life with the verse: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27. Then, Genesis 2:18-25 pictures God creating Adam first, brought to life by God’s own breath. Finally, God created the first woman, Eve, from the rib of unconscious Adam. After these things, God set His good creation in motion. From these two first humans flowed all the people that filled the earth until now. In the beginning, God created one race of humans.
This one race of humans split into many tribes and nations after the flood (Genesis 10), and into many tongues after the tower of Babel (Genesis 11). Today, there are nearly 200 different countries with over 7 billion people speaking over 6000 languages! Although the people of the world now have many different skin colors, lifestyles, educational abilities, and cultural customs, according to the Scriptures all mankind is still ultimately related to each other through Noah to Adam.
How does the world use race?
Our country’s current news cites “race” for unrest, rioting, violence, and mistreatment. Historically, “race” has been the basis for slavery, segregation, and many kinds of discrimination. Even Christians and the church have used “race” to separate, exclude, and divide. However, this idea of different “races” is man made, not Biblical. Whenever man uses this idea of race, it is to separate and to marginalize. To pit one group of people against another. To exalt certain groups over other groups based on skin color or nationality.
Remember that God who knows the number of hairs on your head (Matt. 10:30), knows your exact human “color”. He knows your full ancestry even if you were adopted, were switched at birth, didn’t have the father you thought you did, or were stolen away from your family and raised as someone else. He could write your family tree full of “begats” back to Adam and Eve. The One who knit you together in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13) created you to be your own unique blend of genetics.
Yet, whenever you fill out a form, apply for funding, complete a census, or enroll in a school, you must pick one of a handful of “races” to describe your unique heritage. Our culture wants to squeeze the billions of color variations in God’s crayon box into the tiny 4 color set that they give away free to kids at a restaurant.
Renew your mind to think of “one race”
As Christians, it is easy to be influenced by the reporting on race issues. We can even fall into the trap of thinking in terms of “them” and “us” when it comes to race. Genesis 1 and 2 form not only the Biblical basis for marriage and gender, but also the truth about race. God created one race.
This is, of course, not earth-shaking revelation that will once and for all settle the racial tensions in our land. But, as Romans 12:2 instructs, we should not conform to this world and its ideas. By thinking Biblically about who we really are– one race of humans, we can renew our minds. According to Romans 12:2, by thus renewing our minds, we can be transformed. Then, we are in a position to discern the will of God in dealing with this situation.
Where the world wants you to classify yourself and others as the simple ROYGBIV colors of the rainbow, try to see the infinite spectrum of color variety that God has actually created.
With Joy,
Kathleen