Solid Start: A Christian Church

You see, we believe God meant it to be this way from the beginning. This is what God meant for his church to look like. Let me show you two weird verses: weird in that world and still weird in ours. The apostle Paul says, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one … in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3.28) Those were the kinds of polarizations that caused wars back then. But not in God’s church! The Message puts it like this: “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 (all of you). That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ.” You see, God thinks our common allegiance to Jesus is way bigger than anything – anything -- that separates us. In another place, the apostle Paul puts it like this. He says, “In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. (That stuff mattered a lot in Paul’s world! But not in the church! No, he says:) Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.” (Colossians 3.11) Now … do you buy that? Do you really? Are you willing to try to live it out? Because that’s what we’re about.