“With so much unrest and confusion over different individuals, why did God create different diversity in people? Why it so hard for different diversities to accept one another for the benefit of God’s plan?” That was the question that was recently posed to me. With as much bickering and fighting as there is (and has been) in the world, it is a fair question. Let’s consider it for a few moments.
God made diversity in everything. In the animal kingdom think about the difference in large land mammals like an elephant or bison to small hummingbirds, to large reptiles like the dinosaurs, to tiny microbes. There is diversity in topography in the relatively short drive we take from our home at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, across the plains of Kansas, over the Ozark Mountains, to our homeland in the farmlands of West Tennessee. Even among a portion of creation as relatively similar as humans. Genesis 1:27 says, “male and female He created them.” So, from creation there was diversity.
That diversity was magnified in Genesis 11 with the account of the tower of Babel. Verse 7 says He confused their language, and then scattered them all over the face of the earth. The people in a particular area would have certain genetic traits stand out. So, we have diversity in languages, location, culture, and races.
God must love diversity because He created a lot of it. It is understandable because out of diversity comes beauty. This truth is seen in nature, in people, and ultimately in His saving plan. God is perfect, and His creation, as diverse as it is, was declared “very good” in the last verse of Genesis 1.
So, we must be careful not to confuse diversity with division. God created diversity. He did not create division. Have you ever known identical twins? Did they always get along with each other? Probably not. Diversity is not the problem. Division is, and it is something that the Almighty hates. Satan and sin divided humans from God, husband from wife, brother from brother, family from family, father from son, and nation from nation all in the first 11 chapters of the Bible. Starting in chapter 12 He begins to reveal His plan to unite all of humanity in his promise to Abraham. Through the patriarch, “all the families of the earth will be blessed.” He restated this promise time after time to Abraham and his descendants. The writers of the New Testament repeatedly referred back to this promise to prove the point that God does not want division but unity among all of mankind. He wants us to be united in Jesus.
The book of Ephesians rings forth this truth when Paul writes to Gentiles telling them of his prayer that they might understand their special place as part of the family of God in chapter 1. In chapter 2 he says, “For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, … might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity … for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.” In chapter 3 he says that the Gospel message is all about how “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Paul goes on to tell how he was sent to preach that message to all men.
Throughout the New Testament writings one of, if not the biggest, problem the church faced was division over race. Sadly, we have not left that sinful practice behind. The problem is not in our God, His creation, nor in diversity. The problem is the hearts of men who do not “Think Souls” and come together in Jesus.
Corey Sawyers