Author: PDB

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”—1 Corinthians 2:12 (NKJV)

The other day I was talking with some of my disciples. As we chatted, I felt compelled to propel them into a teachable moment related to how we tend to place confidence in humans as opposed to the Holy Spirit. So here is what I did: I began to butcher each one of their names with an erroneous usage of the original “Greek” language. My performance was convincing. My disciples thought I was a genius for translating their names into Greek, even though their “Greek” names sounded ridiculous.

The truth is, I have no idea how to translate anything into the original Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic without using a computer program. Yet, these intelligent men placed confidence in me, a mere mortal. They were convinced I was being truthful because of my eloquence. Has that ever happened to you?

Have you ever been given instructions or information by someone who seemed accurate but ultimately led you down a precarious path? Let’s be honest, if you’ve ever used a GPS system, I’m sure you’ve felt the despair of being given the wrong information or instructions. From time to time, we all mistakenly put our confidence in people or things to guide us rather than tapping into the divine and flawless instruction of the Holy Spirit.

In the second chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul appeals to Christians, reminding us we have the benefit of divine instruction. In other words, we’re able to freely obtain information by way of the Spirit who dwells in us. That’s such an exciting revelation! We don’t have to depend on mere mortals to guide us in spiritual matters or the things of this world.

So, the next time someone approaches you and tries to convince you your name sounds ridiculous in the “original language,” you may want to recall what Paul says about placing too much confidence in man or the finite things of this world. You just might be allowing yourself to be duped, hence being blinded from genuine truth. Remain confident that we have the infinite wisdom of the Spirit which directs us is all truth and divine instruction.

DIG: Read 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, John 6:45, and Isaiah 54:13.

DELIGHT: Ask yourself if you’ve placed too much confidence in finite means rather than divine instruction. If so, shift your confidence and Delight in the fact that you can place FULL confidence in the Holy Spirit that dwells within you!

“Then he said to them, ‘You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.’”—Acts 10:28 (NKJV)

For the first eight years of my life, I had the privilege of being raised in a multiracial family. My mother is Italian, and my father is black American. The dynamic in our home changed when my parents divorced, but up until that point, life was fairly normal.

In my home, we didn’t have any sense of race or skin color. We never questioned why Dad was a different color than Mom. It never dawned on me that I had browner skin than my two white half-brothers. We just didn’t give any thought to our racial differences! We didn’t even give any consideration to the fact that we were a “blended family.” I consider my half-brothers to be my true brothers—end of story! My brothers never thought of my dad as their stepdad—he was simply Dad. Growing up, all we knew and concerned ourselves with was that we were a family and we loved each other.

I share the above to simply suggest that this is how Jesus aspires us to appeal to one another. In a world that is filled with hate and racial prejudices, Christ’s blood is the common thread that should weave us all together into God’s blended family of believers. Why then do racial prejudices exist?

Well, the root of anything that is antithetical or opposite to Christ and His aspiration for humanity is sin. When sin entered the world through Adam, humanity adopted a wicked heart (Jeremiah 17:9). Racial prejudices are exactly that: wicked! It is not the blueprint that Jesus lays out for us as He engages the Samaritans in John chapter 4. In that passage of the Bible, we’re told Jesus purposefully passed through Samaria, a place that had no dealings with Jews, to obliterate the idea of racial divides.

In Acts Chapter 10, we learn about Peter, a staunch Jew who was convinced Christ only died for the Jews. The Bible tells us Peter was given a vision directly from God. This vision reshaped Peters theology, and as a result, Peter preached that “God shows no partiality . . .” (Acts 10:34 NKJV). Peter came to realize that everyone is accepted by Christ.

Friends, when we allow racial prejudices to dictate how we treat others, we totally miss the whole point of the glorious gospel.