There Can Be No Discrimination Among You

Hello, and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for joining us today. We’ve got a great sermon coming up, so if you haven’t already hit the Subscribe button, hit the like button, hit the bell icon, hit all those buttons so you can stay tuned and stay notified each and every week when we post new content.

I really hope that you are enjoying our sermons. If so, please comment below with some words of encouragement and let us know also consider sharing some of these sermons on your social media to help us reach even more people.

So with that, let’s dive in. We’ve got a great message today, we’ve got a lot of scripture so I hope you have your Bible ready. If not, all of the references will be listed in the description below so you can go back and look them up on your own time.

And let’s be real: you’re probably not going to do that but I challenge you to do that, to look up each and every one of those verses. Whether it’s on your phone, preferably with a real hard copy Bible so you can feel and smell and touch the pages and see it.

Read those verses, read those scriptures, and really dive into the message that is coming to you today. Because even though we’re giving you a sermon, we’re giving you a bunch of verses that support a main point.

All of these verses represent so much more, and it’s your job to go through and read those verses and read some verses above and below, so you understand the context, the time frame, and what was going on there. And then you can use all of that extra information to really shape your beliefs and your knowledge about this topic.

So what are we talking about today? We are talking about discrimination. Yeah, this is a sensitive topic. A lot of people don’t like to talk about this, because it’s somewhat of a controversial topic. Discrimination specifically: what does the Bible say about discriminating?

Now first, let me define this. What is discrimination? Is it as some people think, is it racism or is it equalism or is it favoritism or any of those other isms? No. Discrimination is something different. Yes, it can play a part in all of these other controversial issues. But specifically, when we’re talking about discrimination in the Bible it’s very very simple. It’s very very clear.

Discrimination means when you are unfavorably thinking or acting against a certain individual or group of individuals, based on something that they are, whether they identify that way or they are born that way, etc. So it could be ethnic discrimination. It could be value discrimination. It could be belief discrimination, could be age discrimination, it could be any of those things.

But what it means is a negative treatment of those categories. So for example, if you say I don’t like this Spencer guy because he’s got spiky hair and now you say you’re not watching those sermons because you don’t like my hair, you’re discriminating against me because of my hair.

Loose example, yes, it needs more detail, but that’s a very very quick thing. More appropriate would be something like my skin color but now that’s race discrimination. And it goes into even more: ethnic discrimination, age discrimination. It’s a very big one that people who are either older or younger don’t get the same opportunities as people who are a certain age. Or male and female.

There are all kinds of issues we’re not going to dive into, the political side of this. What we are going to do is take a look at the Bible and how discrimination is addressed. Basically, what the Bible says is, you are to treat everyone the same. That’s it. We could end the sermon now, five minutes in, and you got the main point.

But why does the bible say that? And how can you apply that to your life? That’s what we’re going to dive into as we go further today. So get your Bibles ready, open up your ears and your mind, because this is going to be a great message that you can use in your everyday life.

Share with other people, some people who you think might have a lot of those prejudices or isms, they need to see this. Because they need to know that Jesus does not approve of any kind of discrimination, particularly special treatment, etc.

Everyone is to be treated the same way. Equally fairly with love and that’s what we’re getting into today. So the Bible is very clear: you are not to discriminate against anyone. You need to treat everyone equally, exactly as Jesus would treat him or her. And how did Jesus treat people with love?

Let’s dive in: John 15:12. John 15:12 says “My command is this: these are Jesus’s words. My command is this: love each other as I have loved you”. That’s it. Jesus treated everyone with love. So what is love? Let’s define that love: It is the happy willingness to put oneself aside for the benefit of another. You say “What? That’s kind of a complicated definition.”

It’s really simple: happy willingness. It means that I am happily willing to put my own needs aside. If I’m hungry and someone else is hungry and I say “Here, have my food.” I’m not disgruntled about it. I’m happy and willing to give my food to someone else because I love them. I’m putting my own needs aside for the benefit of someone else.

That was Jesus. He was happily willing to take the punishment for our sins, for our benefit. He put his own benefit aside. And he took our punishment for our benefit. That’s the happy willingness to put oneself aside for the benefit of another. You need to treat everybody like that, with love. Everyone is the same in the eyes of God.

Let’s go to Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. What does that mean? No male no female, so everybody is transvestite or transgender or without gender or without sex? No, that’s not what this is meaning.

This is meaning that in the eyes of God, we are all one thing. What are we, his child? We are all one, we are human. That is what God sees. He looks at us, and he sees you are a human, and you are my child. He doesn’t see whether I am employed or not employed, slave or free.

Now in today’s world, we don’t have a lot of slavery as as we did back then. However, unbeknownst to many people, slavery is just as rampant today. It’s done illegally and for profit. So that is something we’re fighting against as well. But God sees everyone as his children, humans. There is no Jew or Gentile, there is no black or white, there is no red or yellow.

Like the song, Jesus loves me. Says red and yellow, black and white, they’re all precious in His sight. We’re all the same. When you discriminate against someone, for any of those reasons, age, height, weight, race, nationality, looks. Whether they’re beautiful or ugly, with long or short hair, etc, it’s a sin.

Why? Because Jesus says to treat them with love. If you are discriminating against them, you’re not treating them with love. That is a sin. Jesus says there is neither slave nor free, everyone is the same. You need to get that in your mind.

Let’s go to James Chapter 2. James Chapter 2, Verses 2-4: “Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say ‘Here’s a good seat for you’, but say to the poor man ‘You stand there or sit on the floor by my feet’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts you have?”

James is giving you an example of discrimination that happens all the time. I’ll never forget this. I’ve told it before in a sermon that one time I went to a bank, and I was wearing some construction clothes.

I had on jeans with holes in them. There was concrete dust on them. I had a gray shirt on, that had some mortar on. There I was kind of sweaty. I had my hair, it was not nice like this. It was all down and I probably had stuff on my face. My hands were dirty cuz I was wearing gloves. I was Dusty. I had boots on.

I go into the bank. Not a person in the parking lot, no one at the door, no one inside said ‘hi’ to me. They all kind of did this: I will go up to the teller. The teller didn’t say ‘hi’ to me. First I went up to them and said “I’d like to do this, make a deposit” and went on with the transaction. Got out of there, that was it.

About two or three days later, I went back to that bank. I was wearing a suit like this. I even had a tie on. I think it was a gray suit, you’ve probably seen me wear it before. And I had that suit on. I was nice: my hair was good. I go into the bank. Okay first of all, I park the car, I get out of the car in the parking lot. Two people said “Hey how’re you doing, Sir? Wow, nice suit.”

Inside, the second I set foot inside the bank, I opened the outside door: it was a double door for an air gap because it was winter at this time. It was summer, but that’s how they build them. So I opened that one, someone inside the bank opened that door for me, an employee. “Hi, welcome welcome sir,” “Thank you.” I go in to the counter, to grab the deposit information. Someone says: “Right over here, when you’re ready, sir.” A teller goes over there: “How are you doing today?”

Night and day. What is that discrimination? Favoritism, partiality. I was dressed one way. I dressed a different way: completely different treatments. That is not good. So pay attention to it, because it happens more often than you think.

Now what happened in that situation is, I was most likely judged when I was wearing the shabby clothes. They were judging me as this guy. A guy who has a lower status than when I was wearing the nice clothes. They immediately thought “We need to talk to this guy. We need to pay attention to him because he’s a higher status.”

It is not for us to judge other people. We have a sermon on that, so be sure to check it out up here. God is the judge. It’ll be in a card up above if you’re watching on YouTube. Otherwise, check it out on our website.

God is the judge, it is a task that is reserved only for him. We are not to judge other people. Why? Because if we judge, we are also guilty of the same thing. By the rod we judge others, we will also be judged. God is the only one perfect and without sin, so he has that ability to judge others among other reasons.

But let’s go to 1 Peter 2:22-24: “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” That is talking about Jesus: he committed no sin, no deceit therefore he has the ability to judge. Not us. He is also the only person who could pass God’s judgment because he is without sin. He is also the only person who could pass judgment on someone else.

Let’s go to Matthew 72 to reinforce the verse I mentioned, but we haven’t read it. So we’re going to get some real scripture support here. Matthew 7, Verse 2: Let’s start at verse one: Matthew 7:1: “Do not judge or you, too, will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.”

And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. So all those people who judged me that day for looking crummy, and didn’t talk to me, and all those people on a different day who judged me for looking good, and talked to me: They will all be judged the same way. Pretty sobering.

Don’t judge others. We have a whole sermon on it, again check it out. How can you judge someone when you’re guilty of sin exactly as they are? And that is the point. You can’t.

Let’s go to Romans 3:23. What does it say? Romans 3:23 says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We’ve all sinned. We have a sermon on Sin. It’s sin. It’s equal. It’s humans that add different things, check it out. Sin is Sin.

We have another one called “All sins are equal,” so check that out, too. They’ll all be up here in cards, so you can watch those on your own time, or go to our website. Go to the search bar, type in sin. You’ll get all kinds of sermons that mention that. It’s a very very heavy topic.

“We are all guilty,” you say. “Well, I haven’t murdered anyone.” Well, have you told a lie? Yep. Okay, guess what? The murderer and the liar, the same guilt. “Whoa, really? On Earth I can lie with no consequence, but if I murder someone I might go to jail for life.” Guess what? That’s a human standard. God’s standards are different, they’re even more equal. No discrimination.

Judging someone is discriminating against them, that’s a sin. Discriminating is also a sin, so is the thought of doing it. The thought, the mere thought of doing that, is a sin. So if you look at someone and you think about like, “Oh man, if that person comes over to me in whatever in the restaurant or they want to sit by me, I’m going to move.” Or “I don’t want that person to sit by me.” Or “I hope that person doesn’t sit over here” or “Oh no, there’s so and so: let’s hide.”

No, when you see people like that, you should be going to them. Why? Because you need to be acting out of love, and if you have that split-second thought like “Oh I hope that person doesn’t come over here,” or “I hope that person doesn’t see me,” then guess what? You need to reverse it, because that split-second thought is of a sinful nature. You need to do the opposite.

So if you see someone who comes in, and they’re dirty or they’re smelly, or you don’t like fat people and they’re really fat, or you don’t like super skinny people and they’re really skinny, or whatever the reason is you don’t like a certain type of person or this or that.

And you think “I don’t want to sit next to that person” or they get on the bus or whatever, you need to be the one that as soon as you have that thought, you need to reverse it and go over there and be with that person.

Why? Because that’s love: putting yourself aside for the benefit of another. if you’re having that thought, thinking for a split second, hopefully, it’s only a split second that you don’t want to be near that person or you don’t want to talk to that person, then chances are other people around you, who are also sinful by the way, are having that same thing.

They’re having that thought and so if you don’t be the one to go over and talk to that poor person, who you might be judging, might be discriminating against. If you don’t do that, who will you need, to be the example as a Christian? You need to be different. God’s people are different. We are set apart. We are called above. We have a purpose and a calling and we need to be like Jesus.

So I challenge you: seek out those who look lonely or lost, and come comfort them. Be with them, talk to them. Strike up a conversation. Smile. A smile can change someone’s day, even their life, because they’ll think you see them. That they matter and they do.

Maybe all they need is a smile from you. Remember not only is judging or discriminating against that person a sin, so is the thought of doing so. Remember James 2:4.

Let’s read it again. James 2:4 says “Have you not discriminated among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?” Evil thoughts. That’s a sin. The thought of doing it is a sin. Don’t even think it.

Another verse says “Make your will to take every thought captive, and make it obedient to Christ.” So if you start having a thought about judging someone, or having a thought of “Oh, I don’t want to see that person because of how they’re dressed” or this or that, or you don’t like whatever.

Maybe you are a person who’s been a Christian a long time, or you’re set in your religious ways, and you see two people that are males or females, and they’re holding hands or maybe they’re even kissing in public.

They’re gay and you’re repulsed by it. And you say “I’m not even going to look at them. I’m not even going to see them.” Maybe you need to acknowledge those people: “how you guys doing?” and show them a little love. You don’t need to preach to them and say “Hey you guys are sinning, this is wrong.”

But how about something like “How’re you guys doing today?” or just saying hi, or just smiling, or just showing them the love of Jesus? Not condemning, not judging, not having evil sinful thoughts of condemning or judging. But taking those thoughts captive, making them obedient to Christ, and then acting out that obedience by showing love as Jesus would do.

Remember, it’s the thoughts that conceive and give birth to sin.

Let’s go to James 1:15. James 1:15 says: “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” So if you have those thoughts of judging or discriminating against someone, eventually those thoughts are going to become your actions, and you are going to discriminate in action.

And then, if you continue you are going to spread like wildfire, to get others to follow those sinful actions and lead them astray. Then you are going to be convicted of sin and death. And that is not a good take. Every thought captive makes it obedient to Christ. Stop it before it gets any worse. You need to train your mind to avoid those evil and discriminating thoughts.

Let’s go to the verse where I got that, 2 Corinthians 10:5, let’s see 10:5: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Every thought needs to be captive, and in obedience to Christ, because then your actions will follow.

How do we know that it’s biblical, what you think is what you do, and what you do is what you influence others with. And if you influence others in a wrong way, what does the Bible say? “Better that you have a millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the depths of the sea, than to lead people astray.” Children astray, serious, so no Discrimination. Act in love, exactly as Jesus would do.

Let’s pray: Father, thank you so much for bringing us here today. I thank you for each and every person watching and listening online that they would be inspired to change their mind, their way of thinking, so that they would see with your eyes, Lord.

That they would see with your eyes and act and think in love, so that their loving thoughts would then turn into loving actions. And that they would show the world that they are different, that they are set apart, that they are a child of you. And that they would then influence and inspire others to do the same: to act in love in obedience to Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Thank you so much for being with us today. If you have any questions, questions or comments, be sure to put them below. Have a great week. God bless.