EPHESIANS 2:14

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.

TO PONDER

Who, is your biggest 'hostile' threat at the moment? Here in Australia we have not felt the effects of global conflict acutely for generations. Even now with fuel prices through the roof and the rising cost of living being driven up by global conflict overseas, we don't really have a lot to complain about. It's not our families and friends caught up in the fighting and bombing raids that have been the lived experience of so many people around the world in recent years. So it is easy to sometimes think of ourselves as not having "enemies" in that kind of sense.

However, most of us have a person, or maybe even a group of people, whom we like to blame for all our problems. Maybe it's the politicians, Perhaps it's the boss at work. Maybe it's a daily battle between yourself and a spouse or some other family member. Maybe it's just the unknown resident of your neighbourhood who keeps parking their work trailer full of yard clippings and landscaping equipment right out the front of your house because it is the only scrap of vacant street space on your block! (yes, that last one comes from personal experience.)

The problem is that in Christ, those things that we use to categories people and separate "us" from "them" are no longer relevant.

For generations, the people of Israel had known they were God's chosen people, the beneficiaries of God's promise to their ancestor Abraham. They considered themselves separate and 'special' but forgot that with the promise came a purpose - that God would bless the whole world through them.

In Christ, that purpose had been fulfilled and now, In Christ, the distinction between Israelite and Gentile was no longer valid. God's grace and mercy was now freely available to all who acknowledged Jesus as Lord; Jew, Gentile, slave, free, male or female. In Christ there is no longer 'us' and 'them' anything that creates a dividing wall of hostility is counter to God's plan and purpose. Now reconciled in Christ, we are one body, the body of Christ and his continuing presence to the world.

Makes you wonder doesn't it, whether all our bickering over the finer points of Christian doctrine is as important as we might like to believe?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, It is still hard at times, to see others the same way you see them, especially when they have hurt or offended me. Please help me to remember that just as I might sometimes think others are undeserving of your grace and mercy, that the same is true of me and those I love. No one deserves your grace and forgiveness, yet you offer it freely to us all because of your great love for us. Help me to have that same love for others that they might come to know you and your love for them. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle