TWO INTO ONE III

In yesterday’s Journal entry, I mentioned that in Ephesians, there is great effort to present the body of Christ as one people. Not unlike the Galatian letter where Paul, an apostle tried to give the same clarity:
“For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:27-28) No distinctions. Not Jews, not Greeks, not Slave, not Free, not Male, Not Female… “you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Often in the letters, believers in Christ and the Kingdom Way, are simply addressed as brothers and sisters, or ‘saints.’ The word saints simply means, ‘holy ones.’ Or ‘set apart ones.’ There is no distinction of individual ‘holy ones.’ No Jews, no Pentecostals, no females, no Reformed, no males, no Orthodox, no Methodists, no Anabaptists, no Flying Right with Jesus, no Presbyterians, no reverends (Reverend: Latin: meaning ‘worthy of reverence,’ nope, none of those), no holy ones who think they are holy, no Father as a title, no Episcopals, no We Got it All Figured Out, no Baptists, no prophets who know when the end of the world will happen, no monks, no non-monks… we are all one…children of the Father, God’s children. We are not two, we are one.

Paul, an apostle said it this way also:
“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. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).

“Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Jesus