Galatians
3:26-29 In
Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in
Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs
according to promise.
Jesus is the only person who
can draw us together. We Christians do not come from only one walk of life. We
do not come together by a common culture that we hold or by our life
backgrounds. We all do not come from one race, as if we could be united
ethnically. We are not even all of one nation or sex or intellectual attainment
or status. All the causes for the divisions and conflict in the world exist in
the Christian Church.
But there is a difference
between the diversity of the Church and the diversity in the world. Within the
Church and for each of us as Christians these divisions and differences simply
cease to matter. We are no longer seen as different or diverse. We are one. The
reason for this is Jesus Christ. He has gathered all of us to himself, he is
the bridge to our commonality.
In the small book of
the New Testament, Philemon, we find Paul bringing this principle to a common
life situation. Paul writes this letter while imprisoned in Rome, to Philemon,
a slave holder, who is a fellow believer in Christ. While in Rome, Onesimus (Philemon’s
runaway slave) met up with Paul. The meeting enabled Onesimus to become a
believer in Christ. Paul then sends him back to Philemon. Paul explains that “this
perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back
forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved
brother…both in the flesh and in the Lord.” (vs.15-16).
