Breaking Prejudice: How Christian Love Builds God’s Family
- Jack Selcher
- Sep 16, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Summary
Prejudice flows from pride and places others beneath us. Acts 11 shows God dismantling centuries of religious bias as Peter recognizes Gentiles as full members of God’s family. No denomination owns the whole truth. Love is the true mark of Christ’s followers. The church at Antioch modeled this love, blessing those who once doubted them. Christian love builds bridges and often returns help when it’s needed most.
Prejudice as Pride in Disguise
Prejudice is pride putting others in their imagined inferior place. An event in Acts 11 ran counter to centuries of Jewish prejudice against the Gentiles.
Breaking Prejudice
Peter’s ministry to Cornelius and his family did not please those who looked down on the Gentiles as unclean. Peter defended himself by explaining his experience, beginning with his vision in Joppa (Acts 11:4-17).
He emphasized God’s initiative in breaking prejudice and his inability to withstand Him. He did not want to oppose what God was doing (Acts 11:17).
When God Redefines “Us and Them”
God showed him the Gentiles were part of His family, too. That was a huge step. Putting the Gentiles on an equal footing with the Jews cut through centuries of prejudice.
Denominational Pride vs. Christian Love
Religious prejudice continues. Many denominations believe their teachings alone are completely correct. Other brands are inferior. Does that square with your experience? How so?
John Wesley once dreamed he was at the gates of hell. He discovered that many Roman Catholics, Church of England, Presbyterians, and Wesleyans were there.
He then found himself at the gates of heaven. He encountered no denominational labels there—only Christians who love the Lord.
No denomination has a corner on the truth market. We know some things out of many. What we know, we know partially.
Love as the True Mark of a Christian
The mark of the Christian is love (John 13:34-35). That is concrete evidence that a new birth has occurred, no matter the denominational label.
Pride underlies prejudice. We are wrong if we insist that we are better than other races, nationalities, classes, or denominations.
We have all done and said things we regret. We do not want God or others to hold these things against us.
Christian love builds bridges to others, no matter their past. Jesus humbly washed His disciples’ feet, knowing they would abandon Him during His darkest hours.
Antioch: A Model of Inclusive Faith
Acts 11:19-30 describes the ministry at Antioch, a city of approximately 500,000 people. Numerous Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ there.
That scared Jewish believers in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to investigate. He did not criticize these new believers. He encouraged them. They had begun well. Now they needed to persevere in their belief (Acts 11:23).
Barnabas recruited Saul from Tarsus to join him in Antioch to teach these new believers. People first called the disciples of Jesus Christians there. The word means “Christ followers.”
The end of Acts 11 records that Christians at Antioch, whose salvation Jewish Christians had questioned in Jerusalem, were the source of supply when those Jewish believers were in need (Acts 11:29-30). It does not pay to look down on others. You might need them to pick you up when you are down! See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.
God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead 7,590 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 17,681 people. I invite you to explore and use it in your setting.
Comments