Dear Reader,

Did you ever have someone ask you, “What’s wrong with a biracial marriage?!” or perhaps, from the other side, “Why should I live next to that trash?!!” From whatever perspective, we need to understand what God says about how we treat people who are different from us.

Basic to our perception of races is the initial need to realize that we all come from common parentage, at least twice in human history as recorded in the Bible. The very first book, Genesis, tells us that God created a man, Adam, from the dust of the earth, and created woman from a rib taken from Adam’s side (Genesis 1-3). From these two ancestors, all of the population of the world has descended. Just a little further in the book of Genesis, the record tells of only one family who survived a global flood. That family consisted of a man named Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives. So from this family, all of the rest of us have come.

Since God recorded that the creation of man was very good, we can assume that creation provided a level playing field for all of humankind, and there was no showing of favoritism to certain segments of the population. Several different areas of human existence point to the commonality we all share, regardless of skin color and/or national origin. For one, there are males and females in every people group. Second, regardless of nationality and barring abnormalities, we all have the same physical make-up, i.e. we all have eyes, arms, ears, legs, fingers, nose, head, mouth, etc. Third, we share blood types that can be matched, regardless of skin color. Fourth, we all have the same basic needs; the need for physical care, the need for emotional support, the need to be loved and loving, to be touched, cared for and cared about, and, again, the list could go on. Fifth, we all share a sense of moral right and wrong. To be sure, it varies somewhat, but in every culture, there are acceptable practices, and those that are not acceptable. Sixth, we share common spiritual drives and longings. Finally, we all share the need of salvation from a universal sin, which is indicated by God’s love for the whole world, and a place in eternity for every tribe, nation, tongue, and land.

I see that skin color or national origin becomes absolutely unimportant in our relationship and responsibility to one another. Don’t you?

Thanks for reading,
Pastor Ritchey