UNITED WE STAND

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation….  (Ephesians 2:14)

In this chapter, Paul is giving a graphic portrayal of fallen man’s condition apart from Christ, and the transformation occurring from entering a personal relationship with Him.  These verses describe sinners as orphans and outcasts.  All that changes when we meet Jesus.  Sinners become saints—and the result is we become part of the family of God and the estrangement we had from God and His people comes to an end—united with Christ and one another.

The church is a BROTHERHOOD (Eph.2:11-14).  The world loves to think of itself as a great community where all are one.  The reality contradicts such utopian nonsense. Man’s brutality is graphically displayed on the news each day.  The only way true peace comes is when the Prince of Peace brings it!  Our peace with others is predicated on our peace with God available through Christ.  It is through this connection that God becomes our Father.  We may have black skin or white skin; we may be Methodists or Baptists; we may be Jews or Gentiles—we have the same Father and belong to the same family.  Sinful humans like to build walls, but God is in the business of demolishing barriers!

The church is a BODY (Eph.2:15-18).  As a body has many different parts, connected and working together at the direction of the head, so is the church.  God fashioned Adam’s body from the dust and breathed into man His life in the original creation.  In the new creation, He took such unlikely material as we are and molded us together, breathing His life-giving Spirit into us—and the church came to life!

The church us a BUILDING (Eph.2:19-22).  I’ve often heard—and said—that the church is not a building.  That depends—if we mean that the church is not an edifice constructed of bricks and mortar, we are correct, but the church is a spiritual temple constructed by God of redeemed men and women.  The picture is of an architect fitting many different components into a structure—and thus God is the Architect of His church and we are the pieces He puts in place.  The foundation of this temple is Christ the cornerstone and connected with Him, the apostles and prophets, who shared His Gospel in establishing the church.  On that foundation, God is raising the frame.  We are the material He is using.  How exciting that what God is doing in our local church is part of the great eternal temple He is building!

You can be my brother or sister—if God is your Father.  No longer need you be excluded—an outcast without hope—you can be reconciled to God and enter His forever family!  If you have not received Christ—do it NOW!

Those who belong to Him need to employ the unique giftedness He has placed in us for doing the work in this world He wants done.  No more fighting with each other, we are family!  No more laziness, we are the Body of Christ to be His hands to help and feet to go and mouth to speak!  No more complacency in thinking the church is “OK” when He wants the building ever expanding!  Why would we want to build a chicken coop on the massive foundation of Christ’s work which He designed for a heaven-reaching and global-encompassing structure?