Essentially, when God created this world, He created us to be equal. There was a oneness with each other. But once the original sin took place, that dissolved. Among the sins that entered into the world were oppression and persecution - there was now inequality.
As a result of sin, we have both apparently random effects (e.g. natural disasters), and then we have direct results: 1) ungodliness (personal sin, suffer own consequences) and 2) oppression (sinning, forcing consequences on others, or imposing sin on others).
Oppression can be boiled down to two things: sin + power. If you have power over somebody and sinned against them using that power, you have oppressed them. We are urged to have understanding and to be open minded, because whenever we judge others by our own standards (e.g. culture, sex, race, ethnicity, or personal traits), then we will automatically see them as inferior to ourselves.
When Jesus returns, equality is one of the things that he will restore on this earth. Part of the redemption of our world will be the removal of oppression. In the mean time, we are charged to be his hands and feet, and to fight sin and its consequences while we are here...which includes oppression. While fighting against things such as ethnic-based suffering may sound politically charged, I think we have to realize that it's also biblical. It is biblical for Christ's love to manifest itself in us, and for us to reach out to those who are suffering. We are to identify with suffering, and to give this world a glimmer of hope, a hope that there will come a day when all these things will pass away and that Jesus will make all things new.
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Next post: God's grace and your sufferings.
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