All One Person in Christ Jesus

Readings:
Psalm 17
Galatians 3:19-29

Focus:
Galatians 3:28: "There is no such thing as Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female, for you are all one person in Christ Jesus."

This is one of the greatest and most liberating statements in Christianity. In Christ all distinctions are gone. We are all the same in his eyes. He does not have favorites.

Although the Jewish people had been God's chosen people, the Greeks--and people of all other nationalities and races--were shown to be equally chosen by God after Christ came. Slaves were given equal love and brotherhood to freemen. (Christians later led the movement for abolition, and today they are in the forefront of the fight against slavery.)

Although society had given a special place to men, it was to women that the risen Christ first revealed himself. And the church gave leadership positions to women.

There is no distinction between people, between the conditions they find themselves in, in God's eyes. All that matters is whether or not they give their allegiance to him.

Woman Is As Essential to Man As Man to Woman

Readings:
Job 17
I Corinthians 11:1-16

Focus:
I Corinthians 11:11: "Yet in the Lord's fellowship woman is as essential to man as man to woman."

Although in much of this passage it sounds like Paul is saying that men are superior to women, in essence this verse is key to all. Women are as essential to men as men are to women. In other words, they are equal. This was radical for the first century, but it was typical for Christianity to be radical: Christians also treated slaves as brothers and sisters, for example.

In other parts of the Bible we also see how women are lifted up beyond the cultural customs that had held them back. Jesus gave them attention and dignity that would not normally have been accorded women. In God's sight, there is no male or female. Christianity teaches us that maleness and femaleness are both reflections of aspects of God. Women were the first to discover Christ's empty tomb. That's pretty special! As a woman, I'm grateful that God does not make distinctions of worth between the sexes.