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. Galatians 3:28

 

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If we imagine Paul writing this to the churches in America today, we might add: “Neither Republican, nor Democrat.” At a time when the church appears to divide along political, social, and racial lines in painfully visible ways, Paul’s appeal to unity is profoundly relevant.

It is important for us to hear him clearly.[1] He is not saying the distinctions of male/female, of Jew/Gentile, of slave/free do not exist. What he does affirm, however, is that these overarching categories of distinction no longer matter within God’s “new creation” people as a criterion for worth, superiority, or a claim upon God. Developing this further, he avers “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything” (Gal 5.6).

Ethnicity, primogeniture, gender, socio-economic status, educational merit, accolades … nothing.

Or if you prefer Robert the Bruce of Braveheart: Lands, titles, men, power … nothing.

 

If there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, then what is there? We might expect him to say: there is now only “Christian” as if to create a new, third identity (which while not ‘wrong,’ is not Paul’s emphasis). What he does offer is that rather than “Jew or Gentile, male and female,” we are “one.” The prior distinctions between different people do not melt away, nor can we even legitimately say they are “transcended” (if we must use a descriptive verb, subjugated more appropriately comes to mind). These distinctions are brought together however uncomfortably into one home, into one organizing principle, or to use Paul’s language: into one body.

This was no mere metaphor for salvation. Paul was after how this “unity” would work itself out among the churches within their own time. How does this “one” body of stridently conflicting persons now live and act together? If I read Galatians aright, the answer is through the way of the Servant: “through love, serve one another (Gal 5:13);” “bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2).” In constant and loving regard for the other in their midst, Christians are called to consider the needs of others before the needs of self. The model and impetus for this is the life of Christ himself, “who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2.20);” “for though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich (2 Cor 8.9).”

 

The Thing About Church That Keeps Me Up At Night

We are one in Christ. What can this mean in our divisive culture that goes beyond a socio-political cliché? What does “one in Christ” mean for an evangelical block of North American Christians who support Donald Trump on one end and Hillary Clinton on the other (and maybe Gary Johnson on the wing)? What does unity mean for Christians throughout the world deeply divided on issues of morality, homosexuality, tribalism, denominationalism, and so forth?

It is of greatest importance to me that for all of the painful divisions that threatened to divide the first churches along racial, social, and political lines, Paul never permitted them to simply split up along those lines for the sake of peace and harmony. That’s what churches today tend to do (particularly the ones I’ve experienced). Churches now gather itself into distinct blocks of every ethnicity, every music preference, every sacramental penchant, every doctrinal distinctive — ‘it’s just easier this way.’ But what keeps me up at night is that it never occurred to the Apostle Paul to separate the “weak” from the “strong” (even if that would have helped foster a unity of a segregated sort). For Paul, it was wrapped up with the Gospel itself that uncomfortably divergent groups (e.g., weak and strong, Jew and Gentile) worshipped together, ate together, and welcomed one another in Christ as one body.

 

What Then?

Ed Stetzer recently tweeted:

“Every millennial wants to change the world; they just want to do it from Facebook.” –@LeonceCrump at @leadnet #400gathering for @compassion

— … Ed Stetzer … (@edstetzer) September 27, 2016

While I’m not a millennial, I hear Ed’s point. So where should we leave Paul’s challenge beyond just throwing a few thoughts up on Social Media?

Start with your own church.

Start with your own circle of influence. Can you identify divisions among your Christian community that require a re-affirmation of unity in Christ? Where are those areas within your church that you (with a group of others) can serve one another in love, precisely with an eye towards breaking through the old ways we “one-up others,” segregate and differentiate others, deem one group worthier, more attractive, or more relatable than others. Those differences lack any currency in the new church in Christ; they don’t count anymore.

Dream Bigger.

More ambitious still, can we dare to build larger platforms where Christians and churches can publicly actualize unity in ways that break through ethnicity, denominations, and other historically intractable barriers to unity? Can we find ways of putting churches from different neighborhoods and backgrounds together in a public show of symbolic reconciliation? Can we dare find ways of putting Christians of varying political stripes together in order to vocalize her distinctive voice in addressing Christ-modeled issues of societal and cultural importance? [I do note that I’m not alone in this line of thinking and movements along these lines are and have been on the move: if you know a good one, please include them in the comments if you are so inclined].

For certain, living out of the new reality of what God has created “in Christ” involves a measure of pain as is evident in Paul’s letters as his various churches strive and fail as they “look not only to her own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil 2:3). None of this comes easy and may well come at great cost. My appeal is to followers of Jesus. We either believe this stuff or not. Can we take some steps together to learn the way of unity?

 

  

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Notes:

[1] The simplicity of the Apostle Paul’s pronouncement is striking; the varying interpretations are profoundly diverse. Among the more important voices to follow on this verse and the issues of Christian identity and unity among difference and diversity, see,  John M. G. Barclay, “‘Neither Jew Nor Greek’ Multiculturalism and the New Perspective on Paul,” in Ethnicity and the Bible, ed. Mark G. Brett (Boston: Brill Academic, 2002), who is in illuminating conversation with Daniel Boyarin, A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 155.

 

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