Everything is Secondary 2

Ethnic allegiance must be secondary to our allegiance to God.

“So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching the good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all)” (Acts 10).

When I was in high school, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney released a song called “Ebony and Ivory.” It summed up the state of racial disharmony from a position of hope for a better future. They sang,

“We all know that people are the same wherever you go.

There is good and bad in ev’ryone.

We learn to live when we learn to give

Each other what we need to survive, together alive”

(Paul McCartney, 1982, © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Tratore)

That song wouldn’t fly today. Instead of growing toward a unified humanity, we have become a nation of intersectionalities and hyphenations. We are categorized as either oppressed or oppressors based on where our ancestors lived and the amount of melanin in our skin or the texture of our hair. Our physical differences are not meant to divide us, but rather to delight us in the beauty of diversity. Like the trees of the forests, whose leaves vary in shape, size, and shade, create a depth of wonder, we see God’s creative hand in the variations of how we look, each person unique. Or look at the colors of the earth from which all of humanity was formed: rich mahogany, ivory sand, warm sienna, desert ecru, and every other possible combination. Is one beach better than any other because its sand is tinted pink, black, or gold? Of course not. For those who love the sea, the variations add to the experience of being part of creation.

John M. Perkins (2018) wrote, “We know just by looking at God’s creation that He delights in diversity, even as that diversity is rooted in common traits. Did you know, for example, that there are more than 31,000 species of fish? They make up endless varieties of colors, shapes, and behaviors, yet they are all fish. There’s a reason why God did it this way. I believe He loves to showcase unity amid diversity” (50).

God made humanity diverse. We look different, we speak differently, we like different foods, have different musical tastes, and we experience life differently. And that’s part of what God called “very good.” As a family of God and a community of believers, we have often allowed the brokenness of the culture around us to infiltrate and divide based on something beautiful designed by the Father, Himself. When we identify according to race (a social construct, as opposed to ethnicity, a biological fact) before our identification as Jesus-followers, we only add to the divisions in the local church and the Church writ large.

Our allegiance must be to God above all else. When Christians who seek after God’s heart come together as brothers and sisters, equally beautiful and equally valuable, no power on earth can withstand us. Our diversity adds credibility to our unity as one race, the human race. One blood, serving one Lord, together living in harmony.

Ebony and Ivory – Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder

Resources

Jason Cook (2024, January 28). “Belong: Go” [Sermon] Belong: Membership at Fellowship Series, Fellowship Bible Church, Roswell, GA. https://fellowshiproswell.org/sermon7/belong-go/
John F. Perkins (2018). One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race and Love. Moody.