Ephesians: Belonging

A Place to Belong

¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Ephesians 2:19-22 (NIV)

Paul wrote this letter to be circulated to the churches in Asia Minor. The members of these churches were likely representative of the general population in the area. They would have included all kinds of people. Of particular significance in this letter was that the members included both Jews and Gentiles because these two groups did not mix in the Roman world of the 1^st Century. In verse 11 Paul says, “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth…”, which identifies the “you” in this passage. The people who first heard this letter would have heard Paul telling them that the Gentiles were now “members of his household,” “fellow citizens,” and “built together.” These are all images that would have made the Gentiles part of this new family of God. The had been “other” but were now “us.”

In the Christian culture of North America we don’t experience the same strong cultural division between Jews and Gentiles. The force of Paul’s words is lost on us, partly because we see the animosity between Jews and Gentiles as a cultural anachronism, and partly because we see Jews as a small minority without much influence on our day-to-day life. We don’t think of ourselves as outsiders or strangers.

Paul is expressing a broader principle in this passage than just the inclusion of Gentiles in God’s people. God’s family includes all kinds of people regardless of the category or group to which we assign them. God includes all of humanity as citizens of his kingdom. The is a common theme elsewhere in the Bible. In Galatians 3:28 Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In Genesis 18:18 God says, “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.”

We continue to divide people into groups. We use wealth, birthplace, skin color, and even weight, political opinion, or education as ways to identify the “other” in our world. This passage reminds us that God makes no such division, so we ought not to make too much of our categories as well. We should constantly be aware of the “other” in our world. As members of God’s family, they are “us” as well.