Galatians 3:26-4:7

" You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." (Galatians 3:26- 4:7, NIV)

Homogeneous unit principle The fifth vital sign of a healthy, growing church is that its membership is composed of basically one kind of people...People like to become Christians without crossing racial, linguistic or class barriers.... A "homogeneous unit" is simply a group of people who consider each other to be "our kind of people." They have many areas of mutual interest. They share the same culture. They socialize freely. When they are together they are comfortable and they all feel at home. Peter Wagner; Donald McGavran

Jesus’ community was not homogeneous: it was provocatively inclusive of various ideological segments in the context of his society; therefore it had something hopeful and challenging to say to his society. He was the reconciler of the opposites of society, creating a reconciling community. Alexander Venter

" You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (v26-28)

Being clothed in Christ To be “clothed with Christ” perhaps refers to the early Christian practice of stripping and then re-clothing oneself in a white, liturgical robe after the baptismal ceremony, thus symbolizing disrobing oneself of sin and then putting on the virtues of Christ. Scot Mcknight

All All sons of God All were baptized into Christ All one in Christ

These labels are gone … Jew – Greek Slave – Free Man - Woman

“Blessed be God that he did not make me a Gentile; blessed be God that he did not make me ignorant [or a slave]; blessed be God that he did not make me a woman” (Tosefta Berakoth 7:18).

Those who are “in Christ Jesus” are those who believe in him; those who believe in him come from all walks of life, from every nation, and from both sexes. The problem the Judaizers had with Paul was that he did not properly (in their view) construct the church because he was breaking down the line between Jews and Gentiles. No doubt, they argued that this line was made by God when he called Abraham (Gen. 12). Paul now shows that faith in Christ obliterates such distinctions, and so he sees in the seed of the gospel a tree that has within it three mandates: a cultural one, a social one, and a sexual one. Scot McKnight

Not easy … Acts 2 – 5 Acts 6 "Some time later, as the number of disciples kept growing, there was a quarrel between the Greek-speaking Jews and the native Jews. The Greek-speaking Jews claimed that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of funds." (Acts 6:1, GNT) Acts 10 "But Peter said, “Certainly not, Lord! I have never eaten anything ritually unclean or defiled.”" (Acts 10:14, GNT) "He said to them, “You yourselves know very well that a Jew is not allowed by his religion to visit or associate with Gentiles. But God has shown me that I must not consider any person ritually unclean or defiled." (Acts 10:28, GNT) Acts 15 … biggest church fights in history …

"Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with Peter because he was clearly out of line. Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade. But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: “If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you’re not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?” " (Galatians 2:11-14, The Message)

Slave nor Free In fact, it is indeed likely that in the early church slaves were leaders, and their owners submitted to them in the context of the church. As R. N. Longenecker observes: “The phrase is also pregnant with societal implications. And undoubtedly some early Christians realized, at least to some extent, the importance for society of what they were confessing.” Scot McKnight

Statistics 27 Million: Number of people in modern-day slavery across the world Sourced by the UN, New York Times, Amnesty International, The Christian Science Monitor, and Free The Slaves, among others. 800,000: Number of persons trafficked across international borders each yearUNNew York TimesAmnesty InternationalThe Christian Science MonitorFree The Slaves Sourced by the US State Department, International Justice Mission, and Antislavery.org, among others. 50: Percent of all victims are childrenUS State DepartmentInternational Justice MissionAntislavery.org Sourced by the US House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, and the US Department of State, among others. 20 Million: Number of bonded laborers in the worldUS House of Representatives Committee on International RelationsUS Department of State Sourced by Free The Slaves. 218 Million: Estimated number of children working aged between five and seventeenFree The Slaves Sourced by the International Labor Organization. 126 Million: Estimated number of children who work in the worst forms of child labor - one in every twelve of the world's five to seventeen year olds.International Labor Organization Sourced by the International Labor Organization, UNICEF, and the US Embassy in Uruguay, among others. 300,000: Estimated number of child soldiers involved in over 30 areas of conflict worldwide, some younger than 10 years old.International Labor OrganizationUNICEFUS Embassy in Uruguay Sourced by UNICEF, the BBC, and Amnesty International, among others.UNICEFBBCAmnesty International

Philemon Learn to live simply so that others can simply live – Tom Sine

Man - Woman For those who are in Christ, antagonisms, criticisms, snide remarks, subtle insinuations, and overt prejudices must end, for in him male and female are one. I believe that, as is the case with slavery, so with women, Paul provides an agenda that would take years for the church and society to implement properly and honorably before God. McKnight, Scot.

You conclude your book by saying that “what Christianity gave to its converts was nothing less than their humanity.” What do you mean? RS: If you look at the Roman world, you have to question whether half the people had any humanity. Going to the arena to enjoy watching people tortured and killed doesn’t strike me as healthy. I’m a big football fan, and I see that, when some player gets hurt, they bring out an ambulance and the doctors take twenty minutes to get him off the field. They don’t want people hurt out there. But these people did. They’d shout, “Shake him! Jump up and down on him!” Was Christianity’s contribution just the elimination of the circus? RS: No, it was a new idea. Among the pagans, you get the sense that no one took care of anyone else except in the tribal way. It’s what we’re seeing today in the Balkans—you take care of your brothers, and you kill everybody else. Christianity told the Greco-Roman world that the definition of “brother” has got to be a lot broader. There are some things you owe to any living human being.

"If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." (v29)

"What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." (4.1-7)