The Good News Is For Everyone
"There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3:28
The gospel has always been scandalously inclusive, and this verse was a scandal the day it was written.
Understand what Paul is naming. In his world, those three pairs were the fault lines that organized everything. Ethnicity determined where you could go. Legal status determined whether your body belonged to you. Gender determined what you could own, inherit, or say in public. There was a common prayer in that era in which a man thanked God he was not a Gentile, not a slave, and not a woman.
Paul takes that exact list and dismantles it. In Christ, he says, those distinctions no longer determine anything.
Let us be precise, because this verse gets flattened. Paul is not saying differences disappear. Your culture is not erased in Christ. Your history is not erased. Your particularity is not a problem God is trying to solve.
He is saying those differences no longer determine worth, access, or belonging. Every person, whatever their background, their bank balance, their nationality, their gender, is equally and fully welcomed into the family of God. Not tolerated. Not admitted on probation. Welcomed as family.
The early church learned this the hard way. It took a vision on a rooftop, a hard argument in Jerusalem, and years of conflict before they could accept that God had already welcomed people they were still debating about. We are usually slower than God. That has always been true.
That has radical implications for how we do mission. It means we do not carry good news to some people while quietly writing off others. It means we do not build communities that are welcoming in theory and exclusive in practice, where the statement on the website says one thing and the experience of walking through the door says another.
And it means that the barriers we maintain are our barriers, not God's. God never asked us to screen the guest list. It is not up to us to decide who belongs. It is up to God, and God has already decided.
Look honestly at the community you are part of. Who is missing? And do not stop at noticing. Ask why. Is there a barrier, spoken or unspoken, a cost, a schedule, an assumption, a joke that gets made, that quietly tells certain people this place was not built with them in mind?
Then take one step this week to remove it.
The good news is for everyone. Let us stop acting like it belongs to us!
Prayer:
Lord, help us carry good news to everyone and not only to the people who are easy to reach. Make your church as wide as your love. Show us the barriers we have stopped noticing. Amen.
The gospel has always been scandalously inclusive, and this verse was a scandal the day it was written.
Understand what Paul is naming. In his world, those three pairs were the fault lines that organized everything. Ethnicity determined where you could go. Legal status determined whether your body belonged to you. Gender determined what you could own, inherit, or say in public. There was a common prayer in that era in which a man thanked God he was not a Gentile, not a slave, and not a woman.
Paul takes that exact list and dismantles it. In Christ, he says, those distinctions no longer determine anything.
Let us be precise, because this verse gets flattened. Paul is not saying differences disappear. Your culture is not erased in Christ. Your history is not erased. Your particularity is not a problem God is trying to solve.
He is saying those differences no longer determine worth, access, or belonging. Every person, whatever their background, their bank balance, their nationality, their gender, is equally and fully welcomed into the family of God. Not tolerated. Not admitted on probation. Welcomed as family.
The early church learned this the hard way. It took a vision on a rooftop, a hard argument in Jerusalem, and years of conflict before they could accept that God had already welcomed people they were still debating about. We are usually slower than God. That has always been true.
That has radical implications for how we do mission. It means we do not carry good news to some people while quietly writing off others. It means we do not build communities that are welcoming in theory and exclusive in practice, where the statement on the website says one thing and the experience of walking through the door says another.
And it means that the barriers we maintain are our barriers, not God's. God never asked us to screen the guest list. It is not up to us to decide who belongs. It is up to God, and God has already decided.
Look honestly at the community you are part of. Who is missing? And do not stop at noticing. Ask why. Is there a barrier, spoken or unspoken, a cost, a schedule, an assumption, a joke that gets made, that quietly tells certain people this place was not built with them in mind?
Then take one step this week to remove it.
The good news is for everyone. Let us stop acting like it belongs to us!
Prayer:
Lord, help us carry good news to everyone and not only to the people who are easy to reach. Make your church as wide as your love. Show us the barriers we have stopped noticing. Amen.
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