For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 3:26)Renew, the new singles group, met today at 3:00 for their monthly Bible study. They are a new group here at Firm Foundation.
They have a unique (to me at least) perspective on life in general. They are single. I have been married for 41 years (just last week, in fact) and can barely remember what it was like being single. My perspective on the Christian life is not that of a single person.
Listening to them talk gave me some interesting insights. What they considered vital as single people, I do not. The single people and I live, in some ways, in totally different worlds.
But – and here is the caveat – we – both married and single – are both Christ-followers. Even though we look at life in different ways, we are all Christians, children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
I had an ex-inmate ministry in a church I pastored a few years ago. Their perspective too was so different than mine. I never have been in jail or in serious trouble. Yet we were both children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
The same with all of the other people in the church. Even though we are all different, we are all alike in one way: we are part of the Kingdom of God.
In the church are married and single people, ex-inmates, recovering drug addicts, former prostitutes, government workers, manual laborers, college people, educated and uneducated, poor and rich, old and young. And all stand before God equally.
That is the beauty of the church, that motley collection of all kinds of people from all kinds of life.
And no one is better than another. All are equal in God’s sight. He loves none more than the others. Yes, we have different functions, different jobs, different talents – but we are all equal where it counts: we are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
What makes the church work is when all of these people come together, when we all stand united in commonality of belief. When we do that, we are triumphant.
And we are all family
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