Paul’s Letter To the Ephesians 2:11-22 [NLTse]
11 Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. 12 In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. 13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to Him through the blood of Christ.
14 For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His Own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us 15 that had been brought about by the law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new people from the two groups. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of His death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.
17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from Him, and peace to the Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are His House, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus Himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in Him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through Him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by His Spirit.
It is unfortunate, this human desire to be in control. It seemed to have caused Eve to believe the Serpent’s trickery (way back in the Garden), and to have led Adam to choose to eat the fruit after her. It caused the Israelite priesthood to make a priority of their self-made rules and commandments over God’s rules and commandments. It caused First Century Christian Jews to try to control those early Gentile Christians, and has caused Gentile Christians to try to control Christian Jews and so many other converts to Christianity ever since.
(Does everybody know that the Old Testament divided all the peoples of the Earth into only two different groups: You were either a Jew or you were not, which made you a Gentile. Having God’s Law and seeking to live by God’s Law made you a Jew; not having God’s Law and living by any other standard made you a Gentile. So…)
Here in his letter to the Ephesians Paul is writing to a congregation of Gentiles who have put their trust in Christ. And Paul is writing to assure these Gentile Christians that they were fully God’s people: Because of their faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross no barrier existed between them and Jews who had put their trust in Christ. Being Gentiles didn’t make them second-class citizens of the Kingdom. They were not a sub-strata of the Commonwealth of Israel. They were not step-children in the Household of God. Being Gentile Christians, they were just as much Christians as their fellow Jewish Christians.
Here in our day you can hear people debating whether or not Jewish people can be Christians, and which of the customs and practices of Judaism do they have to leave behind. But in Paul’s day the concern was whether or not non-Jewish people could be Christians, or if you had to become a Jew first! Finally a meeting that’s come to be called the Jerusalem Council – an assembly of the apostles, Jewish Elders who’d become Christians, Simon Peter, Paul, Barnabas, Jesus’ half-brother, James, and others – decided that since the Father gave the Holy Spirit to Gentiles when they put their trust in Christ the same way He’d given the Holy Spirit to Jews when they believed, that if God made no distinction between Jew and Gentile that the Church shouldn’t either: Whether Jew or Gentile, faith and trust in Christ tears down any barrier caused by Jewish pride, Gentile envy or resentment, and any possible dislike of the other’s customs. As Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia: “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) And as he wrote to those in Rome: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13) Equally saved.
There’s no longer Jew or Gentile. Not here. Not in these walls. Not in this place. Never when we’re together. We’re all one in Christ. There’s no longer male or female. No patriarchal hierarchy, domination, or subjugation here. Not in Christ’s Church. There’s no preference of boss or employee. There’s no superiority of rich over poor. Out there you might have people treat you one way if you’re black and another way if you’re white. But not here. Not in God’s House. We’re all one in Christ. You might be popular out there or you might be unpopular. The world might herd you into techie and gamester or jocks and geeks, but in here we’re a part of each other: One body, needing each other, interdependent, with Christ alone as our head. Educated or illiterate, sophisticated or simple, upper/middle/lower class, in-Christ-a-long-time or brand-new-to-the-faith: Christ has offered us all the same peace with God because we’ve all had the same need for peace with God. And in receiving that peace He’s made us all one new people, one new creation.
It’s OK to cross ourselves, or not; it’s OK to kneel at your pew, or sit; it’s OK to wear a prayer shawl, or not; it’s OK to raise our hands, or not; it’s OK to let an organ lead music, or a Worship Team; it’s OK to stay in our seats to receive the Lord’s Supper, or to come forward; it’s OK to worship on Saturdays, or on Sundays, or on other days; etc. Jesus has earned us the freedom to do all the things we do very differently, if that’s how we do them, as long as we are coming to the same Father through the same Holy Spirit because of the same finished work that the one and only crucified, risen, and coming again Jesus Christ has done for us!
He’s made us all one in Him!