This article concerns the same topic as my most recent YouTube video, which you can check out here:
https://youtu.be/XWUI8M-SjfA
I want to talk about a problem in our society that bothers me and, at the same time, I want to address a fundamental principle of studying Scripture.
For many decades, in the United States, race relations improved. For a long time, there was slow but steady progress. Now, for several years, it seems like we have been regressing in this area, probably faster than we were progressing before. I’m not just talk about prejudice on the part of white people against black people. There are plenty of black people who don’t like white people. I’m also not just talking about these two races. There is a whole lot of prejudice , on both sides, between people of many races. This saddens me. This is often thought of and covered in the media as a political issue. I have little interest in politics. The reason that I’m talking about this on this website, the website of a Christian ministry, is that I think that understanding and living what the Bible teaches can really improve race relations like nothing else can. Misunderstanding what the Bible teaches, on both sides, can really hurt race relations and, even worse, can really hurt our Christian witness and God’s reputation.
Today, I want to address this question. From God’s prospective, is it OK for a person of one race to date or marry someone of another race? Marriage is the most sacred of all human relationships and so I think that answering this question will go a long way toward demonstrating how God sees the races in general and how we should act toward one another. Let’s talk about that.
A key part of studying God’s Word is actually studying God’s Word. You have to get to know God. Who is He? What is He really like? Why does He say what He says. Don’t just proof text.
Let’s say someone holds up a can of Diet Coke and says “I don’t like this”. Let’s assume that they are being truthful. That statement is true but what can you tell about them from that single statement? Do they not like diet drinks? Do they not like carbonated drinks? Do they not like caffeinated drinks? Do they not like cold drinks. Do they only drink water? From that single statement, which is assumed to be true, you can’t tell much at all about what the person thinks about beverages and you certainly can’t tell anything about them in general as a person. Trying to get to know them from that statement would be ridiculous. And yet, we do this all of the time with God. We take a single verse or set of verses and don’t even try to consider them in the overall context of His Word and who that Word tells us He is. If we want to really know Him, that won’t work.
Also, when it comes to knowing God’s character, don’t just take people’s word for it, even if they are preachers. Don’t just take my word for it. Paul said that we should search the Scriptures ourselves.
Now, let’s look at this issue.
In the Old Testament, God did command the people of Israel, His chosen people, not to mix with the people of other nations, other races. This was because of the pagan religions of those other nations, not because of their race. Israel was the only nation who worshiped the one true God and even they didn’t always do a good job of it. There are many individual verses that you can take, by themselves, and make it appear that God commanded the races not to mix. However, when you look at the Bible as a whole, it is clear that this was not because He did not like these nations but because He did not like the fact that they did not worship Him. They worshiped their own, false, gods. He doesn’t take kindly to that. He was preventing the mixing of religion, not race.
I will give you what I think is a good example to demonstrate my point.
Look at Nehemiah 13:23-27
Nehemiah 13
23 In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other people.
25 So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves.
26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God; and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless pagan women caused even him to sin.
27 Should we then hear of your doing all this great evil, transgressing against our God by marrying pagan women?”
In verses 23 through 26, it is clear that Nehemiah was unhappy about Jewish men marrying women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. If we just stop right there, these verses could easily be used to support the position that God does not approve of interracial marriage. However, verses 26 and 27 make it clear that this is because they were pagan women. God wasn’t concerned about interracial marriages, He was concerned about interfaith marriages.
Now, I want to say something that will help to drive this point home and will give food for thought to those who don’t think that couples of mixed race should have children. We were just talking about intermarriage between God’s people and the Moabites, people from Moab. Read the book of Ruth. Ruth was from Moab. She was from a pagan people but she had converted and worshiped the one true God. In the story of Ruth and Boaz, with Boaz as Ruth’s kinsmen redeemer, we have a beautiful foreshadowing picture of Christ as our redeemer. Ruth was the great grandmother of King David. Remember who was descended from David? That’s right, Jesus! Ruth is one of only 5 female ancestors recorded in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. This was at a time when women were usually not recorded in genealogies at all. God didn’t have a problem with the Moabites because they were a different people. God had a problem with the Moabites because they were pagan, but Ruth was not, and God obviously didn’t have a problem with her. Quite the contrary. It isn’t like He didn’t have a choice here. God could have done this in absolutely any way He wanted but, in the way that He arranged things, Jesus was descended from Ruth, a non-pagan Moabite, and that fact was of high enough significance that He even made sure it was clearly recorded in His Word.
God does not like His people intermarrying with other people. He made that very clear, in the Old Testament, in many places. God does not change and so, under the New Covenant, He still does not like his people intermarrying with other people. But, just as in the Old Testament, this is a matter of faith, not race.
In the New Testament, it is clear that Christians are all God’s people. You can see this in many places. For example, look at Acts 10, especially Acts 10:34-35. Here, I am going to focus on Philippians 3:3, which demonstrates that followers of Christ have been adopted into God’s family and so we, too, are His people.
Philippians 3
3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,
In the time of the early church, there was a lot of false teaching going on. False teaching is nothing new. Remember that the Christian Church came out of Judaism. Jesus was a Jew. Some of this false teaching involved the link between Judaism and Christianity. Some thought that someone first had to be a Jew in order to then become a Christian. A Jewish baby boy underwent circumcision when he was 8 days old. This was supposed to be an outward expression of an internal truth, that he followed the one true God. Gentiles did not undergo circumcision. The church at Philippi, to whom this was written, was composed of gentiles. They were Christians. As Paul said, they worshiped God in the Spirit and rejoiced in Christ Jesus. Speaking of them and himself, Paul said “we are the circumcision”. In other words, he was saying that we, who worship Christ and submit to his Lordship, are God’s people.
We often tend to think of God some how being nicer and gentler in the New Testament than in the Old Testament. However, God never changes. See Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 1:10-12). Therefore, we do see elements of His character which are revealed in the Old Testament played out and even further revealed in the New Testament. In fact, in many ways, between the Old Testament and the New Testament, God actually raised the bar, so to speak. For example, think about adultery and look at Exodus 20:14 and Matthew 5:28
Exodus 20
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
Matthew 5
28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Under the law, they were told not to commit adultery. Then, Jesus said not to even think about adultery. We can see that God’s hatred of adultery is carried through from the law to the New Covenant and, even though we now clearly have the covering of Christ’s blood over our sins, the standard has actually been raised.
God did the same thing with the race issue we have been talking about. God commanding that the nations not mix in the Old Testament is analogous to Christians not being unequally yoked in the New Testament. Look at 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.
2 Corinthians 6
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.”
17 Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”
18 “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.”
The idea of not being unequally yoked here is the idea of a believer not being so closely involved with a nonbeliever that the nonbeliever has significant influence over them. This could mean many different things. Some think that this would go so far as to suggest that this means that a believer cannot even work for a nonbeliever. I don’t think I would go that far but, whatever else this Scripture does or does not pertain to, I think there is no question that it pertains to marriage. I just don’t see any way around that. There is no question that, in a marriage, one has significant influence over the other. They certainly should anyway. So, God wouldn’t care if a white person marries a black person but He would be against a Christian of any race marrying a an atheist of any race or someone of any race who does not worship Jesus Christ. This is how God’s commandments that certain people not mix is carried over from the Old to the New Testament.
It is true that Paul speaks of a Christian leading their nonChristian spouse to faith in 1 Corinthians 7:12-14. However, when you read this Scripture, it is clear that this is if the couple is already married and one comes to Christ and the other does not. The idea of a Christian leading their nonChristian spouse to faith can also be found in 1 Peter 3:1-2. It is not clear in these specific verses that Peter is talking about those who are already married, but as this principle is found elsewhere in Scripture, it still applies. This is the same idea concerning the studying of Scripture that I was talking about earlier. In order to really know God, you have to take His Word as a whole, not just in little pieces. Absolutely nowhere are Christians told to go and marry nonChristians.
Don’t take this too far though. Christians are not supposed to marry nonChristians but we are not supposed to disassociate with nonChristians. Jesus said that we are supposed to be salt and light to the world. We are supposed to show them His love and draw them to Him. We can’t do that if we don’t associate with them. As Christians, we are also supposed to show His love to one another. In the body of Christ, we are all one but we can’t truly be one as long as we hang on to these silly prejudices.
I want to touch on one other issue, very briefly. People of different races are often also of very different cultures and backgrounds. Depending on the situation, this can make it difficult to make a marriage work. Contrary to popular belief these days, love alone is not enough to make a marriage last and coming from different backgrounds can make it more difficult. However, this is true any time you put a couple together who are from very different backgrounds, regardless of whether that is because of race or something else. Whether this presents potentially insurmountable problems is something for the individual couples to decide. You cannot take the Word of God, properly studied, taken in the proper context, and prove that interracial marriage is a sin, because it just isn’t.
Marriage is the most sacred of all human relationships and, clearly, God does not have a problem with interracial marriage . I hope that this helps some of you to understand that God is not racially prejudice and, as we are to be conformed to His image, we should not be either, I don’t care what anyone may say to the contrary. If you have been a victim of racial prejudice on the part of a Christian, please know that this is not what God teaches in His word. If you are a Christian who is racially prejudice, I challenge you to think about what I have said and study it further for yourself. Ask God to change your heart. Until that happens, you are hurting His reputation and that is something He takes very seriously.
