Bible Studies

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Outcasts
Outcasts -- every society has them. One of the most human of characteristics is to separate those who are different and create outcasts. Hagar was cast out because she was an annoyance to Sarah, and a mere slave at that. People have been cast out for every conceivable difference of race, religion, tribe, caste, age, sex, health, and economic status. God expressed a need for man to separate in chapter 11, but this was a separation of language and geography, not of personal characteristics. It is not at all ironic that Jesus spent much of His time with the outcasts of His society, healing their bodies and souls together. Read about the healing of the leper (Mark 1:40-45), the woman with the flow of blood (Matthew 9:20-22), and the man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:2-15). His own apostle Matthew was cast out of regular society when he became a tax collector. At the end of His earthly life, Jesus was made the lowest of all the outcasts. “He is despised and rejected by men, Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” (Isaiah 53:3) How well He understands outcasts.
If we take seriously God’s desire that we “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5), then we must address people on the same basis that Jesus did, on the basis of dignity and need. Every one of us is made in the image of God. If we reject any person, we’re rejecting God’s image, and therefore God Himself. We may not like some of these people. God loves them all. That’s the standard.

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