In our last issue, we saw that God offers the Mosaic Covenant to a relatively small group of people, the Jewish nation. However, God's New Covenant does not have such ethnic limitations.

In Paul's day, the Apostle perceives a great "barrier," a "dividing wall of hostiility" (Ephesians 2:14, NIV) between Jews and Gentiles, or Jews and non-Jews. Many Jews thought they were the only people God loved, that they were the only people God wanted to participate in His emerging Kingdom.

But Paul declares that the "mystery" of God's will has now been revealed, and the Lord desires salvation for all:

This mystery (God's true will) is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. (Eph 3:6)

Through a New Covenant commitment of faith, God forms Jews and Gentiles into one people sharing in one Kingdom.

In our day, the primary issue facing the Church is not whether Jews and Gentiles will be united in Christ, but whether various groups of Gentiles will put aside their differences and join together in Christ-like love.

We human beings tend to set up barriers separating ourselves from those who are different in their race or ethnicity, their gender or economic status, their language or culture. Can men and women, rich and poor, young and old, black and white, east and west, even Catholic and Protestant love one another and live together in peace? Is that possible? Paul prays that it is:

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and [power] to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:17b-19)

When Paul describes Christ's love as "wide and long and high and deep," his point is not that the Lord is VERY loving. His point, in this context, is that God's love is "wide" enough and "long" enough and "high" enough and "deep" enough to take in all kinds of people, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, Asian or African, Arab or Hispanic, liberal or conservative. And if God loves and accepts all kinds of people, then His Church should do the same. The New Covenant community should lead the way in the "ministry of reconciliation" (see 2 Corinthians 5:18-20).

Christ died to bring us together. If we separate ourselves from one another, then we cause him to die in vain and we destroy our witness to the world. God envisions His Church as the kind of community where the barriers come down -- where everyone feels loved, valued, wanted, "at home."

Does this kind of unity seem beyond our reach in a world full of imperfect people? Paul reminds us:

[God] is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or [even] imagine, according to His power that is at work within us! (Eph 3:20)

Let the walls come down!

Reflect...

1. Who are the "outsiders" in your community, and what "barriers" separate them from you?
   
   
2. Paul prays for us to "know [Christ's] love that surpasses knowledge" (Eph 3:18). Paul here uses the Greek term (ginosko) that describes knowledge gained through experience (discussed in Bare Roots 10.3). Many have never experienced Christ's love, so they don't think it's real. His love remains a "mystery;" it "surpasses their knowledge." What are some practical ways you and your church can break down barriers and help "outsiders" to know through experience Christ's love for them?
   
   
3. What "new command" does Jesus give his disciples in John 13:34-35? If Christians follow this command, what impact would it have on our churches and their surrounding communities?

Publisher's Note...

We note with some amazement that this is the 100th issue of  Bare Roots. How the time does fly!--CD

Christopher A. Davis, Ph.D.
Professor of New Testament
Hope International University
Fullerton, California

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