Prejudice is defined as showing partiality, favoritism, or making unjust, pre-assigned judgments based on appearance, race, or social status, which is condemned as sin. God cares about people regardless of their ethnicity, nationality, and social status (Deuteronomy 10:17-19). “God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right” (Acts 10:34-35).
How to overcome prejudice?
Overcoming prejudice involves recognizing that all people are created in God’s image, repenting of partiality, and intentionally loving others with humility and service. Key steps include renewing the mind (Romans 12:2), treating everyone as equals at the cross (Galatians 3:28), and seeing people as God does—by the heart, not by appearance (1 Samuel 16:7).
Matthew 22:1-14, the Parable of the Wedding Feast, illustrates the kingdom of heaven as a royal banquet where God (the King) invites people to celebrate His Son (Jesus). He invited some people to the feast. When it was ready, the king sent his servants to tell the people to come. But they refused to come to the king’s feast. “Then the king sent some more servants. He said to them, ‘I have already invited the people. So tell them that my feast is ready. I have killed my best bulls and calves to be eaten. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’ “But when the servants told the people to come, they refused to listen. They all went to do other things. One went to work in his field, and another went to his business. Some of the other people grabbed the servants, beat them, and killed them. The king was very angry. He sent his army to kill those who murdered his servants. And the army burned their city. “After that, the king said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready. I invited those people, but they were not good enough to come to my feast. So go to the street corners and invite everyone you see. Tell them to come to my feast.’ So the servants went into the streets. They gathered all the people they could find, good and bad alike, and brought them to where the wedding feast was ready. And the place was filled with guests. “When the king came in to meet the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in the right clothes for a wedding. The king said, ‘Friend, how were you allowed to come in here? You are not wearing the right clothes.’ But the man said nothing. So the king told some servants, ‘Tie this man’s hands and feet. Throw him out into the darkness, where people are crying and grinding their teeth with pain.’ “Yes, many people are invited. But only a few are chosen.”
Colossians 3:5-11 says put everything evil out of your life: sexual sin, doing anything immoral, letting sinful thoughts control you, and wanting wrong things. And don’t keep wanting more and more for yourself, which is the same as worshipping a false god. God will show his anger against those who don’t obey him, because they do these evil things. You also did these things in the past, when you lived like them. But now put these things out of your life: anger, losing your temper, doing or saying things to hurt others, and saying shameful things. Don’t lie to each other. You have taken off those old clothes—the person you once were and the bad things you did then. Now you are wearing a new life, a life that is new every day. You are growing in your understanding of the one who made you. You are becoming more and more like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, circumcised or not. It doesn’t matter if you speak a different language or even if you are a Scythian. It doesn’t matter if you are a slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and he is in all of you.
Galatians 3:26-29 teaches that you were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Now, in Christ, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or free, male or female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus. You belong to Christ, so you are Abraham’s descendants. You get all of God’s blessings because of the promise that God made to Abraham.
