Ephesians 2:13-16 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
We are doing it wrong.
Jews and Gentiles were not supposed to be in segregated churches. The barrier and dividing wall that separated the two groups was supposed to be set aside when Christ Jesus became our shared peace. Jesus was supposed to have made one new humanity out of these two ethnicities, making them into one body, one Church, reconciled, with no more hostility.
But that’s not what has happened. The ethnic dividing wall still remains, we just built a new one after the first one fell.
Was it only Jews and Gentiles and the hostility and division therein that Jesus’ death was meant to reconcile within the local church, or also blacks and whites in America? If Paul, who penned Ephesians 2, showed up in America in 2015 and saw our black churches and our white churches and saw the hostility and division that still marks these two ethnic groups within society, what would he say to us? Would he not say Ephesians 2:13-16 verbatim?
Would he not tell us we are doing it wrong?
Would he not tell us there were never meant to be Jewish churches and Gentile churches, but that we are to be one body, one community, under the supernatural unification of Christ?
Would he raise his eyebrows that the average net worth of a white household in America is $141,900 in comparison to $11,000 for the average black household? (see chart at right, from Pew Research Center) Would he consider those numbers, along with the fact that there are more black men in jail than in jobs, and the general mistrust between blacks and whites, to represent adequate reconciliation to God through the cross, knowing the role the white Church played in getting us to these breathtaking statistics?
Or would he say we are definitely doing this wrong?
Would he say there is a supernatural power in the cross of Jesus that is left untapped by the American Church because we refuse to integrate our churches?
1Cor. 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Many of us are familiar with the “body of Christ” metaphor Paul uses for the Church in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, but why is there special attention given in verse 13 to single out Jews, Gentiles, slaves and free? Could it be that a church would read this teaching and assume because everyone in their homogenous church was getting along, that they were following Paul’s intent for the Church? Could it be that integrating Jews and Gentiles (and slave and free, rich and poor) was so inconvenient and counter-cultural that people would have given a litany of reasons not to do it, automatically assuming there’s no way that’s what Paul could have meant by the body metaphor he was using. But it is what he meant. He said so. He didn’t leave a way for the Church to wriggle out of it (yet we still have).
When we understand this is what Paul meant in his body metaphor, we begin to see a pretty deformed picture of the body of Christ before us, don’t we? A lopsided body. A body whose parts reject one another. A body who only lifts weights on one side, leaving the other side to atrophy and shrivel up with neglect, leaving the overall body weak, ineffective and unappealing to those watching it. A body nowhere near meeting the potential it was designed to have. A body that is a prisoner for its mind.
In Galatians 2:11-14, Paul publicly confronts Peter for segregating Jews from Gentiles and for not personally associating with Gentiles. He goes as far as to say Peter is not acting in line with the truth of the gospel by doing this.
Amazingly, the New Testament not only commands and casts the vision for the Church to be multi-ethnic, it also peels back the curtain of heaven to show us what worship there looks like. What do we find but a multi-ethnic Church worshiping together?
Revelation 7:9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,a standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
But that’s for heaven though, right? They don’t have the unrealistic challenges to overcome that we have here in America. We’ll get to heaven eventually, right? That doesn’t apply to us here and now…
(Jesus speaking)
Matthew 6:9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Related Posts:
What would Old Testament prophets say about our segregated churches?
What does Jesus say about segregated churches?
He is:
Author of Beyond the Battle: A man's guide to his identity in Christ in an oversexualized world
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
Join an online men's small group led by Noah and team at BeyondTheBattle.net
Leave a Reply