This is not a race that your Fitbit can track but rather something you are born into. When anyone brings up the topic of race, we tend to compare what is said with our preconceived ideas about race. What if some of those ideas are wrong?
It wouldn’t be the first time someone has been wrong about the race concept. Since the 1600’s, people have been writing about the biological differences in the human races. Currently science has been able to dive into the genetic mapping of human DNA to determine if racial differences are supported by our genetics. The question is, is there enough of a difference in our DNA to show that there are various races of humans?
According to an article published in the New York Times by Natalie Angier, “Do Races differ? Not Really Genes show,” she quotes Dr. J. Craig Venter, head of the Celera Genomics Corporation in Rockville, Maryland as saying, “If you ask what percentage of your genes is reflected in your external appearance, the basis by which we talk about race, the answer seems to be in the range of .01 percent.” To put this in perspective, if you printed each letter of your genome 1mm apart it would be 1,864 miles long. That is the distance from New York to Brazil. Only 1/100 of a percent, or 1,003 feet, of that genome code is different from cultural group to cultural group. Genetically, we are one human race.
There are not enough differences to categorize people into biological racial groups. People have been categorized by ethnic groups but that has to do with common location, culture and ancestral background. All the exterior things. We have come to use race and ethnicity interchangeably. Our differences come in how we think, interact and perceive the world around us.
God has given us guidelines that, if properly executed, can take the diversity of many ethnic groups and unite them. I am not talking about changing languages or giving up cultural customs, necessarily. I am talking about changing the value system and fundamental thinking about life. Ethnic, cast and gender division has always been a problem for mankind. We as a people are quick to focus on the outside appearances to form judgments about people (1 Sam 16:7).
In the church, the kingdom of God (Col. 4:11), there is no race or ethnicity. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). This is a group that has a culture unto itself, because no matter where you find it or what language is spoken, the same basic values, beliefs and heart of compassion are found there. It is never about what you look like but Who you look like. The Christian race is a race that you are born into (1 Pet. 1:3) and it is measured by the word of God. There you will find the collective goal of reaching the heavenly city as a chosen race (1 Pet. 2:9; Heb. 11:16; 12:22).