Good afternoon everyone,

Matthew 5:46-For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the sa
me?

I recently have been reading about the reactions of some of the people I know regarding the young black kid who was brutally murdered and reported as racially motivated. Of course it has produced the natural human reaction of rage and frustration especially from many people in the black community. I do understand it and sympathize with much of the past hurt that such a murder can remind people of regarding the sin of racism. But what is a Christian’s ultimate response? Black or not, do you fight hate and revenge to find love in Christ alone that conquers it?

One of the things that I’m grateful for is my mother moving me and my brother away from Ohio and all of my family. Although I miss them, there was so much racial tension there that you breathed it, and it was taboo to date/fraternize/ etc. with any other race. It wasn’t explicit all the time, but I constantly felt and knew it wasn’t embraced. Sadly what happened in my life eventually was that my "jaded" outlook was confirmed by society because we live in a sinful world. So like many people who may be strengthened in hate in response to this recent hate crime, they become victims like I was and not solutions to it.

From experience I’ve realized that there is no cure for perpetual racism outside of the love of Christ. Without Christ what ends up being the "solution" many times is naive politics or settling for reverse discrimination. Naivity in the sense that you cannot legislate the human heart through social reform or diversity, the bible plus history proves that (Jeremiah 17 v9). But also reverse discrimination, due to a bitterness that desires a justice that only God can truly give upon those guilty of committing hate crimes. Without faith in a God who will repay with justice, and a love in the heart that can eventually forgive, bitterness will rule and hate will be passed down. Racism can end in murder, but starts with being partial and bias towards one culture over another. So as a Christian can you say you are fighting your natural bias from what you were taught or experience(d)? Without a heart changing devotional life to Christ that strives to love without bias, racism will stay perpetual even in churches.

In His Love, Ld