Monday, October 22
Some of the deepest divisions among people are caused by differences of race, ethnicity, and religion. In many societies, identity cards indicate the ethnicity or religion one belongs to, and these distinctions often are connected with privileges or restrictions that people have to live with on a daily basis. When wars or conflicts arise, these markers of identity and differences often become catalysts for repression and violence.
In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul indicates a better way for the Christian community. How does our unity in Christ affect our differences? What was broken down by Jesus’ death on the cross?
Paul invites the Ephesians to remember what their lives were like before they received the grace of God in Christ. Ethnic, cultural, and religious differences created animosity and conflicts between people groups. But the good news is that, in Christ, we are all one people with a common Savior and Lord. We all belong to the people of God. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13, NKJV).
The ancient temple in Jerusalem had a wall of separation to distinguish the sections of the temple accessible only to ethnic Jews. This wall had an inscription that forbade foreigners to go any further, under pain of death. It is this regulation that Paul was accused of transgressing when he entered the temple after his missionary journeys. When Paul was arrested he was charged with bringing into the Jewish section of the temple an Ephesian named Trophimus (Acts 21:29). In this epistle Paul argues that Christ “is our peace, who has made both [ethnic groups] one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation” (Ephesians 2:14, NKJV).
In Christ, believers are descendants of Abraham and receive the circumcision of the heart. The physical circumcision that God gave to Abraham pointed to the spiritual circumcision that believers would receive in Christ (see Deuteronomy 10:16). “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ” (Deuteronomy 2:11, NKJV).
Read again Ephesians 2:11-22. In what ways do we see in our own church the reality of what Paul has written here? What challenges remain?
