…All Equals, Pt 2

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 He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. 15  He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped.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. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

(Message)

O:

You can re-read the observations that we made about this passage in the last post.

A:

Everyone “gets a fresh start”. Paul states that everyone in Christ is given a new start and this is usually referenced to talk about past sins that are now forgiven because of the penalty that Christ paid on the cross. When we think about marriage, there is usually lots of talk about a brand new life together that the bride and groom and embarking upon. A new chapter that everyone ‘hopes’ is  going to be the longest chapter in their lives. However, what about maintaining this thinking every morning. We often hear the advice that a married couple should never let the sun go down on their anger with one another. We all know that in today’s world, at the end of a long hectic day, there is every chance for friction and confrontation to erupt just before bedtime. This can not be left to fester, but it seems it would be better to schedule a time in the very near future to discuss this issue when you are both more awake and less prone to argumentation. Doing this would allow you as a couple to start each day ‘fresh’, without carrying over the hassles and aggravations from the previous day. As the head of the marriage, this responsibility should fall on us as the husbands to schedule and re-start.

He “preached peace to everyone”. If you have grown up in a family, or had any kind of relationships at all, it is highly likely that you have had some difficult times when tensions were high and peace was not even on the horizon. In the context of a young family, it should be up to the parents to create a system that maintains some semblance of peacefulness in the household. It is up to the parents to school the children on how to maintain peace between themselves; teaching fair negotiating tactics, sharing, etc. However, if the parents can not even maintain peace between themselves, it is going to be hard to teach it. So as couples, this basically boils down to staying connected to Christ and maintaining a view of the bigger picture.

He made “everyone as equals”. This point is likely going to be directed more often at the husband than the wife. This point has to do with equality of personhood, not leadership. Personhood has to do with the equality of all people, especially the husband and wife. We each have equal standing in emotional health, spiritual health, mental health, etc. Leadership has to do with assuming the final authority in a decision that is going to affect the entire family, after sufficient discussion, thought and prayer with your spouse, and anyone else that is going to be affected by this decision.

P:

Lord, help us to learn to how to relate as equals without resorting to laws and loss of peace. Amen.