Prejudice Prevents Faith and Salvation #2093

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1:45–46, NKJV)

Prejudice keeps souls from believing Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Bias toward Nazareth almost prevented Nathanael from investigating the evidence that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. To be called a Nazarene was a slur of reproachful disdain (Matt. 2:23). Nathanael had this bias against Nazareth. Fortunately, he accepted Philip’s advice to “come and see” for himself before concluding Jesus was not worth his time and trouble. We must not prejudge people on their skin color, economic status, gender, ethnicity, etc. (Jas. 3:1-9). Neither should we prejudge the gospel of Christ without giving it a fair, unbiased hearing. The people who saw and heard Jesus had abundant evidence to examine that is the Christ, the Son of God (Jno. 5:36). The Bereans verified the gospel was true by examining the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11-12). “Come and see” the evidence the Bible is the word of God and not the word of men (1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). Free of prejudice, we should examine the Scriptural evidence that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God” so that “believing you have life in His name” (Jno. 20:30-31).