Ephesians 2:14-18

"Christ came to announce the joyful message of peace: peace to those who are far away, peace to those who are near. Through him, in one Spirit, we all have free access to the Father."

This letter tells Gentiles that they were "without God in the world," (v. 12) but that Christ "has broken down the wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end." (verses 15-16) We see here that the Greek-speaking churches Paul was organizing with Gentile and Jewish members did not enforce Jewish law. This is why in Galatians 2 Paul speaks out strongly against Peter and James, when the leaders of the Jerusalem church impose Jewish kosher laws on the Christian community in Antioch.

In our time there are no longer Jewish and Gentile Christians. Now issues divide Jews and Christians and also Christians and people of other religious communities. How are these diverse communities of faith to be reconciled? Paul fought in the first century for a more inclusive form of community and against strict rules of belief and practice that he felt denied the reconciling work of God in Christ. How might our communities of faith be more inclusive?

Grace and peace...Bob