Belief Determines Prejudice
Jesus had determined to go to Jerusalem and it seems He and His followers were going through Samaria. He was going toward God’s goals for Him.
(NASB) Luke 9:52-53 “and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.
53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.”
Prejudice does not ask questions for understanding.
Prejudice jumps to conclusions and misses out on God’s blessings.
Prejudice rejects the living God and does not receive Him because His destination is heaven. (The heaven of which God speaks in His word, the Holy Bible, is different from the heaven of various world religions.)
Consider Carefully:
Prejudice toward God and His holy words is to reject God’s truth due to pre-conceived ideas or ideas which come from a bias against the living God.
The thoughts of the God of the Bible does not come from man’s thinking or claims. Many religions have self-proclaimed prophets who are considered equal to or above the Son of God!
Listen Carefully:
Jesus cried out to the people in Jerusalem during the week in which He was crucified:
(NASB) John 12:44-50 “…‘He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.
45 ‘He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.
46 ‘I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.
47 ‘If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
48 ‘He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.
49 ‘For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.
50 ‘I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.’”
Rejecting Jesus and His words will result in an eternity without God.
Believing what Jesus has said is to receive Him and His words. It also means that His followers will gain heaven in the presence of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Three Persons; yet One God!