Equality in Unity
Peter Neilson
September 14, 2024
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Galatians 3: 27-29 (MSV)
27 Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.
28-29 In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.
Famously, the American Declaration of Independence states that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” Apparently, those truths are not so self-evident to everyone as Thomas Jefferson assumed back in 1776. News stories from across the Atlantic make us wonder if there has been a pandemic of cultural amnesia.
Time to point the finger back at ourselves. Paul makes a radical social manifesto for all those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. “In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female.” We are all equal because we are all equally loved, redeemed and gathered into a common relationship with Jesus Christ. He challenges the social, racial and religious prejudices that poison fellowship among churches then and now.
Our churches often reflect one section of our community rather than another. Some people assume church is not for them. The generation gap, the gender gap, the racial gap – are all too evident in many of our churches. It may not be an intentional exclusion but is there intentional inclusion? We sing “all are welcome”, but…
The practical point of all Paul’s theological wrestling is this: by faith we are all “heirs” of the same promise, brothers and sisters of the same Christ, children of the same Father. That may not be as “self-evident” as we would like to think.
Who among us is viewed as “more — or less — equal” than others?
Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, we praise you for the miracle of grace
That is Your church, Your diverse people,
United across the world, united across the ages
In the invisible bond of the Holy Spirit.
Forgive us where pride and prejudice
Damage that unity;
Where pettiness and blindness
leave hurt and division.
In this fractured, conflicted world,
May we aspire to be a sign of hope and reconciliation
Celebrating that we are all one in Christ Jesus,
Anticipating your coming Kingdom of peace
When all things are gathered up in Christ. AMEN
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