Race and the Gospel: Part 2 – Love
1 Corinthians 13:1–13
Last week, I began this two-part mini-series on Race and the Gospel. As we complete this two-part series, I will read from several passages of Scripture, beginning with 1 Corinthians 13:1-13:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
INTRODUCTION
In his book, Race and Culture, Thomas Sowell examines the history of slavery and its abolition in the modern world. He writes—
After lasting for thousands of years, slavery was destroyed over most of the planet in a period of about one century... The destruction of this ancient and worldwide institution ... began ... [through] the anti-slavery ... [efforts of] evangelical Christians... (p. 210)
To be more specific, it was the Great Awakening—with preachers like John Wesley and George Whitfield—that began to stir people’s faith. And that renewal in faith, gave birth to efforts to better love ones neighbor by the abolition of slavery.
Paul’s famous chapter on love is not just beautiful words. Faith in Christ and hope in his kingdom, will—and ought to—bear fruits in both personal and community-wide works of love.
Today, our society is experiencing an awakening concern for racial inequities in American culture. This is not a moment to ignore our calling to love, but a vital moment for our faith in Christ and our hope in his kingdom to stir our hearts in his love.
There is a lot of “white shame” and “white guilt” being thrown around these days. You’ve seen it and perhaps have experienced it. So-called “white guilt” can be paralyzing and, actually, counter-productive. But there is another side of the story that must also be told. The church—for all her shortcomings—has a heritage of hope, justice, and love on many frontiers, including abolition and racial reconciliation.
It is that positive heritage of love that reflects the best fruits of the gospel; and it is that heritage of love that we ought to stir up in our hearts in this moment in our society.
Last week, we looked at the theological importance of racial reconciliation. Our conviction that God is one makes racial reconciliation a necessary ministry of the gospel. Last week, we looked at this topic through the lens of faith. This morning, I want to look at the same topic through the lens of love. What guidance does the Bible give for putting this tenet of our faith into practice?
Let me point to just three examples in the Bible, that encourage our efforts in love in racial reconciliation.
As we noted last week, racial prejudice is not a uniquely modern or uniquely American problem. We find similar instances of prejudice confronted in Bible times, as well; and we can learn from these examples.
Let me lead you through three of these examples in the Bible. May the Spirit of Christ strengthen your faith, encourage your hope, and stir up his love in you through these mediations in his Word this morning.
LISTEN AND BE TEACHABLE (Gal. 2:11-14)
The first example I want to examine is one of the most prominent in the Bible—and one of the most inspiring. It is found in the second chapter of Galatians. I am going to read a brief passage from Galatians chapter two. The Apostle Paul here relates an incident which occurred when he was in Antioch. Let me read the passage, and then I will explain what is happening.
The account is found in Galatians, chapter 2, starting in verse 11. We read:
When [Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to [Peter]...
[And then Paul recounts his confrontation.]
Prior to the New Testament church, religions were ethnic. Every nation had their own gods and their own religion. But the church—for the first time in world history—proclaimed the oneness of God to the nations, and his one Messiah for all peoples: Jesus.
For the first time in history, a religious community enfolded all races without regard for nationality. As Paul wrote many times in his epistles, in Christ there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. That profound Gospel truth was lived out—in the church’s fellowship. Jews and Gentiles actually ate together in the New Testament church! That was unheard of. But that act of hospitality was a living display of the church’s faith.
That faith and its resulting love were put to the test at the church in Antioch. Paul and Barnabas were among the Jewish pastors serving in that church at the time. This is before Paul began his missionary journeys. Initially, he began his ministry as a Jewish pastor serving alongside Gentile pastors in the congregation in Antioch. And Paul knew how crucial it was for that church to demonstrate Gospel faith in Gospel love.
But there were some Jewish Christians who believed that Gentiles needed to abandon their former ethnicity—and to be circumcised as Jews—if they wanted to serve the Jewish Messiah. These were called “the circumcision party,” and they refused to eat at the same table with Gentiles, unless they renounced their ethnicity and became circumcised as Jews.
Paul reports an outbreak of this thinking in Antioch, when certain ministers who were part of the “circumcision party” came to visit Antioch. They remained aloof from the Gentiles, only eating with other Jews in the church. And what deeply troubled Paul, was that even Peter compromised. And when Peter fell into line with this segregation, others—even Barnabas—followed suit! This was a crisis! This was not merely a failure of politeness, this was a violation of the gospel in deeds!
So Paul stood up and confronted this failure to love brothers and sisters of other races, calling it hypocrisy and “out of step with the Gospel.”
Now, here is what I want you to note in the passage. While it took courage for Paul to confront Peter for this prejudice; what I think you should especially note, is the profound humility of Peter to listen. And that is the first work of love that I want to highlight for your encouragement this morning. It takes great love to open one’s heart, to put down defensiveness, and to listen. Like Peter humbly listened.
We, as a society, are being told that there is widespread prejudice in America. Many of our African American neighbors are crying out, telling us that they face widespread racial prejudice—even racial injustice—in the land.
The natural response, is to be defensive. But it takes love, to forego defensiveness, and listen.
You know, Peter could have put Paul in his place. At that point in time, Paul was still just getting started. He was a junior pastor in the church in Antioch, and had taken none of his missionary journeys that would later raise his stature in the church. Peter was a towering giant in the church, and Paul was a newbie. Peter could have put Paul in his place. But he let Paul speak, and Paul’s speech is recorded at length in Galatians chapter 2. Peter let Paul speak. It takes love to set aside defensiveness, and to truly listen.
Such love is vital in our response to the cries against prejudice, today.
What is it like to grow up black in America, today? Why is it that more African Americans die from Covid-19 than white Americans? Why is it that incarceration rates are so much higher for African Americans than white Americans? And so forth.
Before jumping for answers to explain away these complaints, the work of love, is to stop—and with a genuinely open hearts—to listen. Even when we find that some voices are bitter or manipulative or promoting false narratives, love listens for those who are genuinely suffering and hears their cries.
LISTEN to individuals tell their stories. Read books and listen to speakers from the African American community. Listen, not to poke holes or to find fault, but to understand and gain empathy. This is perhaps the hardest work of love we will consider this morning. But it is also one of the most important.
In this moment of social reckoning with racial prejudice, we show love, by setting aside defensiveness—and opening our hearts—to be teachable—like Peter was when confronted by Paul in Galatians chapter two.
PROMOTE DIVERSITY (Acts 6:1-7)
A second way to pursue love in this day of racial tensions, is also illustrated by the New Testament church. I am going to use a popular phrase to capture this second point, simply because it is a phrase everyone understands. But I also recognize it is a phrase that has some baggage that goes with it, and I hope you will allow me to develop a biblical perspective on this phrase, and can set aside the baggage that might go with it in some contexts.
A second way to pursue love in the face of racial tensions, is to promote “racial diversity” in our own circles of fellowship personally, and especially in the church and in church leadership.
Sadly, the phrase “racial diversity” has become something of a marketing gimmick and a ploy in some contexts. Advertisements frequently feature a token African American, a token Asian, and a token woman alongside a white man. It is so staged, it can be almost more uncomfortable than a mono-ethnic image would be.
Racial diversity is too often asserted as a marketing ploy. But there is a good and wholesome, biblical model of racial diversity that is right and good for us to deliberately pursue as an act of faith producing love.
In fact, I would argue that the New Testament Church invented the concept of racial diversity, and we find its first ever introduction in a meaningful and substantial measure in the book of Acts. Let me read you a name list, to illustrate this second point.
The list is in Acts chapter 6.
Acts chapter 6 is the first recorded story of prejudice in the Jerusalem church. This was slightly different than racial prejudice, but was a similar form of culture prejudice—a form of nativism of sorts. The Hebrew-language-speaking Christians in Jerusalem were discriminating against immigrant, Greek-speaking members of the church.
The passage begins:
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists [that is, the Greek-speaking immigrants] arose against the Hebrews [that is, the Hebrew-speaking, Jerusalem natives] because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
Let me pause here a moment to note something. Note how honest and transparent the author of Acts is as he reports this terrible sin in the early church! This glorifies Christ when we, the church, do not hide our own sins, but confess and forsake them. Luke (the author) openly reports this sin of prejudice in the Jerusalem church. But he also reports its resolution.
And let me cut to one key point in their solution. The church appointed seven deacons to oversee the widow ministry, and they appointed Hellenist—rather than Hebrew—deacons. The entire list of names is Greek names, with one of the seven explicitly identified as a Gentile proselyte.
[Then] they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanōr, and Timōn, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.
You can revisit my sermon on Acts chapter 6 for further development of this name list, but this is an example of cultural or racial diversity at work. First, the Jerusalem church enfolded Greek-speaking immigrants as well as native Hebrew-speaking widows in the church. And then, when discrimination between the two groups emerged, they appointed leaders from the group discriminated against, to take up oversight within the ministry!
That is a biblical and holy example of racial diversity at work. That is going beyond photo ops to real changes in love.
This is love we too ought to pursue today. Each of us ought to pursue friendships with other races. If our circles are monochrome, we are falling into the status quo of a segregated society. But as Christians, we should be deliberate in our desire to foster friendships across racial lines.
Furthermore, as a church, we should pray and pursue racial diversity. In fact, we have a prime opportunity to do so as a congregation in our new location. Our previous location was in a predominately white community; but with our new building here in Pike township, we have an opportunity to reach out into a very diverse community. We ought to pray for grace and blessing as we do so.
We are a small congregation, and we won’t change the world. But let’s seek the Spirit’s help to be changed and not to be like the world. Let us learn from the good kind of racial diversity modeled in the NT church. This too is a work of love born out of our faith.
3: PROMOTE RESTITUTION (2 Sam. 21:1-6, 14b)
For a third work of love taught in Scripture, we turn to a story of racial prejudice in the Old Testament, in the book of Second Samuel. King Saul was, to use the Bible’s term, “zealous” against descendants of the Amorites living among his people. Today, we use the term “prejudiced.” In the Bible, Saul is called “zealous” against this race living among the Hebrews.
Second Samuel 21 reports the story, not of Saul’s prejudice but of King David’s discovery of that prejudice—and what David did about it.
I am reading from 2 Samuel, chapter 21, the opening verses:
Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, ‘There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.’ So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them.
Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.
[Then] David said to the Gibeonites, ‘What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement, that you may bless the heritage of the LORD?’ The Gibeonites said to him, ‘It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.’
And he said, ‘What do you say that I shall do for you?’ They said to the king, ‘The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.’ And the king said, ‘I will give them.’...
[Then, at the end of the story of these events, we read in v. 14]—
And after that God responded to the plea for the land.
King Saul had carried out a racial purge against the Gibeonites living among the Hebrews. And God put a curse on the land because of it. But notice how David responded when he discovered what had been done in a previous generation, but had never been resolved.
He went to the offended community, addressed their leaders, and sought their input on a means of recompense for the wrongs done, whether that recompense be monetary (a matter of silver or gold) or judicial (visiting justice upon the perpetrators of these crimes).
In this situation, the Gibeonites rejected financial compensation, but instead sought justice against Saul’s lineage. But the key point to note is the guiding principle for this whole restoration process instituted by David. Note the guiding principle stated by David in his opening question in verse 3:
Then David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement, that you may bless the heritage of the LORD?”
You see, in a biblical view of justice: God is the Judge who hears when people cry out under injustice. God hears the cries of those who are wronged. And he visits his wrath on a land—whether by plagues or wars or, in David’s case, famines. If we fear God: it is to our advantage to open our ears to hear those cries ourselves. And our goal—as a society—is to do what we can so that those who presently cry out to heaven for justice will turn their cries to heaven, into prayers for the land’s blessing.
Those who presently have reason to call down curses against the land, ought to be so restored and shown the land’s repentance, that they instead rise up and pray for God’s blessing on the land.
That is the goal in this third biblical work of love overcoming racial injustice: namely, restitution for damages done.
Of course, there will always be those who are just bitter and hateful and who will never abandon their anger. And there are those who will pursue greed under the guise of restitution, and not real justice.
I am sure there were some among the Gibeonites who would never abandon their hatred over what Saul had done. But, the principle taught to us in Scripture, is to make restitution with this goal: that those who presently cry out against the land, would be moved to rise up and bless the land.
Actually, in America’s history with racial injustice, this very thing was once attempted. As the American Civil War was winding down, and after enslaved African Americans had been freed, the American government sent officials to meet with African American leaders in the south.
On January 12, 1865, General Sherman and Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, met with a group of 20 African American leaders—many of them being black pastors. And they discussed what sort of restitution would recompense the formerly enslaved and help them thrive as part of American society.
It was a meeting similar to what the Bible models in David’s meeting with the Gibeonite leaders.
They agreed, in that meeting, that the plantations of former slave-owners would be seized by the government, and divided into tracts. Each of the freed persons would then be given 40 acres of land and a mule as restitution. This was agreed between the US Government and representative leaders of the formerly enslaved community. But unfortunately, President Lincoln was assassinated shortly after, and President Johnson canceled the agreement, returning the seized properties to the former masters, instead.
That was a long time ago. But it illustrates the practicality of the example given to us by King David. And it shows us the need to revisit what might yet need to be done to turn the cries against this society into prayers for blessing. Love requires that the damages caused by racial injustice be answered with real restitution.
Race-based slavery was ended long ago; but generations of legalized segregation was only brought to an end within the lifetime of many sitting here today. The Civil Rights Act and the end of legalized discrimination was only passed within the generation.
Christians who fear God ought to be among those wanting to understand what damages racial prejudice has caused in our land, and to seek ways those damages might be recompensed in love.
Altogether, these are three ways, rooted in Scripture, that we are called to promote works of love as the fruits of our faith: listening, diversity, and restoration. These are not easy, but that is why they are so Christlike.
CONCLUSION
Some years ago, I was in Chicago for a conference. Heading to the bus stop to catch a bus back to my hotel, I heard a voice calling out, asking for money. But I was in a hurry, so I hastened on. Then the voice changed, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
The man begging for cash, suddenly broke down in tears. As I turned, he wept—and staring at me, he cried, “Why won’t anyone even acknowledge I am here. I feel like I am not even a human being.” Not only his requests for money, but his very presence was being ignored.
I stopped to ask his name, and we spoke. I cannot recall what else we said. We talked for only a few minutes. But I wanted to look him in the eye and show him the respect he needed. I genuinely did not have money to give him—who carries cash these days? But he needed something else at that moment. We ended our short conversation, and I gave him a hug. Then we said farewell, and I jumped on the bus.
Once on the bus, a couple already on the bus called out to me. They asked me to come sit beside them.
As I took a seat, the woman said to me, “We saw what you did back there. Just yesterday, I heard a poem on television. Oprah Winfrey read this poem about love from the Bible.”
Oprah had evidently quoted 1 Corinthians 13. This woman on the bus said to me, “I think what you did back there is what that poem in the Bible is about.” Of course, that man needed much more that I was unable to provide; but what I had done, hopefully meant something to that man, and it opened the opportunity to further tell this couple about faith in Christ who is love.
Our society is going through deep turmoil now, on so many levels. And it is easy for us to get caught up in the defensiveness, the rancor—to pick one political team or another—and to fall into line with the world’s combative ways. But let us be the church of Jesus Christ!
Let us embrace our faith, and the social and racial reconciliation of the Gospel, that we might instead model heaven’s love to the world around
This resource is part of the series More than Imago Dei: Theological Explorations on Race. Click here to explore more resources from this series.
Michael LeFebvre is a presbyterian minister. He holds a PhD in Old Testament from the University of Aberdeen and is a CPT board member and a member of the St. John Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
