Strangers Become Heaven's Citizens

The Christian Community Comes Alive 

Giving Bold Testimony 
Trusting the Spirit

Ephesians 2:11-22  The Message

^11-13 But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
^14-15 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.
^16-18 Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

^19-22 That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

For Reflection

What changes if you substitute Christians and non-Christians for Jewish and non-Jewish in the previous passages?  What does it say then about the relationships among Christians, atheists and adherents to other religious traditions?  If God created, through the Christ event, a new kind of human being and made us all equals, how can one act inhospitably to anyone who currently believes or acts differently?  As a Christian I should not treat anyone with animosity whatever their practices are!  All humans share the same Spirit and have equal access to God.  The important question I must ask myself is, "Do my actions toward humans of all kinds attract them to God?  How am I helping others come to the Spirit which resides in them?  Am I bringing hope or condemnation?

Pray

prayers of thanksgiving and praise for the Living God.  Pray that all people will find the Holy Spirit which resides within them.  Pray that you will show profound Christian hospitality to all whom you encounter.