Who Are the ‘Right Kind of People’?

Christians have debated who the “right kind of people” are for almost as long as there have been Christians. The earliest Christians were Jews, and they had trouble believing Gentiles were the “right kind of people” to receive the gospel. Church leaders in Jerusalem demanded the apostle Peter defend his actions of entering the home of the Roman centurion Cornelius and preaching the gospel to him and his family. 

In the 1800s a Baptist missionary appointed to preach the gospel to native Americans announced the day before he was to leave on his first missionary journey that the Lord had revealed to him that “Indians did not have souls” so they were not the right kind of people to receive the gospel.  

And who has not heard modern-day stories about churches that have decided against certain ministries because those activities might not attract the “right kind of people”?

Instances like these raise the question of who are the right kind of people. One biblical character who many might conclude was not among the right kind of people was the Samaritan woman Jesus met at Jacob’s well. 

For Jews of Jesus’ day, this woman was the wrong race. Samaritans had a trace of Jewish blood dating back to the time of the Babylonian captivity. But generations of intermarriage with foreigners from every part of the Babylonian empire made the Samaritans despised by the Jews. 

Jews had no social dealings with Samaritans. Jews making the journey between Jerusalem and the Galilee area took the longer, more difficult route along the east side of the Jordan through Jericho rather than pass through Samaria. 

Jesus’ enemies tried to discredit Him by claiming He was a Samaritan. John 8:48 quotes Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, charging, “Aren’t we right that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” 

Racial prejudices are not new and they are not confined to the past. Racial prejudice causes some to conclude today that those of a particular race or a particular ethnic group are not the “right kind of people.” 

The Samaritan woman was excluded from the right kind of people because she practiced the wrong religion. Samaritans built a temple on Mount Gerizim to rival the one on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Ruins of that temple can still be seen on the mount above the present-day city of Nablus in the West Bank. Samaritans had their own priesthood, their own Bible. While some books shared common names like Deuteronomy, the difference in teachings was striking.

Samaritans believed they practiced the true faith taught by God, that the Jewish faith brought back from captivity had been corrupted by influences from other Near Eastern religions. The question about where to worship God was not idle conversation raised by the woman. It was at the core of religious differences between the two people groups. 

How often today Christians conclude that people of other religions are not the right kind of people. Not only are people of other faiths not the right kind of people, but sometimes we also  conclude that people of other traditions within Christianity are not the right kind of people. 

Another problem of the Samaritan woman was her immorality. She had five husbands and was living with a man who was not her husband. Some commentators ask if she was the town prostitute. Immoral people cannot be the right kind of people, we often conclude. 

Sexual sins characterized the Samaritan woman, but sin is sin. Criminals, druggies, freeloaders, deadbeats and other sins — all are immoral by biblical standards. Even Samaritans ostracized this woman from society. She could not draw water at the same time as other women in the village. She was not among the right kind of people and neither are immoral people today, some will say. 

In Jesus’ day, the woman at the well was not among the right kind of people for the simple fact that she was a woman. In the United States today it is hard to acknowledge that every morning when the devout Jewish male rose to say his prayers, he thanked God that he was not born an uncircumcised Gentile or a woman. Women were primarily important because they could bear male children. In some parts of the world that attitude can still be found. 

Some of the heretical group known as Gnostics even taught that women could not enter the kingdom of heaven unless they became male. The Gnostic gospel of Thomas, an early writing known to the church, quotes Simon Peter saying, “Let Mary go out from among us because women are not worthy of life.” This writing has Jesus responding that He will make Mary a male before adding, “For every woman who makes herself male will enter the Kingdom of heaven” (Logion 114).

Also one should not miss that when the disciples returned from buying food, they were astonished that Jesus was talking with a “woman” (John 4:27).

Yet none of these characteristics turned Jesus away from her. He took the initiative to make contact with the Samaritan woman when He asked her for a drink of water. Their conversation was not syrupy sweet. Jesus dealt with concepts of false religion — “A day is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem,” he said. Jesus acknowledged her sin. Yet He treated her with kindness and respect. He led her to faith in Himself. He accepted her witness that led others to faith. He enjoyed the hospitality of her village for two days.

For Jesus the Samaritan woman was included in the right kind of people who need the gospel. In fact, every lost person was in the right kind of people category because “God is not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).

If that is the example of our Lord, I wonder why some Christians have trouble deciding who are the right kind of people to need the gospel and the ministry of His church.