…”All” Equal, Pt 1
S:
Ephesians 2:14-18
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 He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. 15 He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped.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 Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. 17 Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. 18 He treated us as equals, and so made us equals.
(Message)
O:
What we have highlighted here is a portion of the passage Paul has written to the church at Ephesus outlining the work that Christ, his death on the cross, and his resurrection has accomplished for everyone, not just a chosen minority. There are a couple of times in this passage were he talks in an us vs. them figure of speech and how that division is no longer a valid way of thinking. He is trying to emphasize the fact that all of the work that Christ did can be appropriated by any human being; there are no divisions, the law has been re-worked, everyone gets a fresh start, peace is the hallmark of this new faith system, and everyone is equal.
A:
He references a few different concepts that work well when we apply them to marriage.
He “tore down the wall”. This is an obvious reference to what happened at the time of Christ’s crucifixion when the curtain dividing the outer court and the inner court of the Jewish temple was torn in two, uniting the two areas into one common sanctuary. How often and how easy is it to erect walls in our marriages. Men, how often do we build walls of silence, or walls of noisy bricks by yelling when things haven’t gone our way, or don’t turn out the way we want them too? In marriage, walls are not usually physical, (unless that is the way we are using our “man cave”), but rather they are more often emotional or mental. If we are claiming to be men of God, and husbands to one wife, walls are not permitted.
He “repealed the fine print in the law”. This is another reference to an Old Testament standard that had been edited beyond recognition. What had started out as the oft quoted Ten Commandments, had been edited, revised, categorized, foot-noted to the point that in the versions that would have been in use around the time of Christ, would have consisted of 613 Laws of the Torah, plus all of the accompanying ‘adjustments’, the laws could have numbered in the thousands.
I hate to leave you dangling, but this post is going to be just too long…please be sure to come back next time.
Lord, Help me to recognize that my wife is an equal partner in this marriage, and help me to learn to treat her as such. Amen.