One in Christ

DAILY READING

Ephesians 2:11-21

 

DEVOTION / REFLECTION

Life Together

by Dave Mann

 

One-anothering.  In this series, we are looking at many passages in the New Testament where the words “one another” are used. Isn’t it great when everyone can get along in perfect harmony? Life together, where everyone loves and accepts each other. Well, that works as long as everyone sees things in the “normal” way, whatever that is. A wise person once said, “Everyone is normal, until you get to know them.” All of us have our issues. If this one-anothering thing is going to work, it has to work with flawed people – people with issues. And that’s a good thing, otherwise, all of us would be disqualified!

 

God is not really glorified when perfect people love each other. That’s easy! But when the rag-tag army of the real church manage to have a semblance of one-anothering, when we love the unlovely, and when others love the unlovely parts of us, then we are forced to admit that this result is a product of the Holy Spirit working in spite of the obstacles that we create.

 

In today’s passage in Ephesians 2, we read about two people groups who historically had been at odds with each other, neither one of them trusted or respected the other. And yet, because both became believers in Christ, they saw that they were forgiven and given new life. Those who were far away were brought near. Those who considered themselves “near,” recognized that they, too, were saved by grace, not by merit or ancestry. Where there had been a wall of hostility, now there was a bridge of friendship. Now there was a new person, the body of Christ.

 

The application point of this passage is challenging, but it is very much needed. In prayer, I urge you to ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind the people with whom you find it difficult to co-exist peacefully. These people may be of a different political persuasion, people of a different ethnicity, people of a different economic status. The Holy Spirit may bring to mind people in your own family, or others in the church. You may have tried to be kind to certain people in the past but your efforts have been rebuffed. Never fear! Our Lord knows how to break through walls that divide people, and how to build bridges. The Spirit is the master builder of life together.

 

Lord Jesus, I need your help to move this one-anothering from theory to reality. I ask that you make it real in my life. Holy Spirit, speak …  In Jesus’ name, Amen!

 

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. ¹⁷ And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,^[a] but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

PRAYER PRACTICE

Spoken Prayer – Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.