Readings for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Is. 65:1-9

Gal. 3:23—4:7

Luke 8:26-39

Passage for Meditation:  “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:27-28 

Devotion:  There are a few ways in which we can interpret this controversial claim of the Apostle Paul.  One way to interpret this is to say that once a person is baptized into Christ all physical distinctions of gender, ethnicity or class are completely destroyed.  This would literally suggest that the baptized become asexual  individuals with no national heritage and no vocation.  This would be a wrong interpretation.

A second way to interpret these verses is to say that all distinctions of gender, ethnicity or class are destroyed before mankind.  This is to say that in the eyes of our fellow man the baptized’s sexual identity, national origin and vocation become obsolete and irrelevant in light of the new spiritual reality found in Christ.  This too is a false or wrong interpretation.

The final, and correct interpretation of these verses is this:  That before God, there are only two types of creatures:  Those connected to Jesus through faith and those who are not.  For those baptized into faith in Christ, in God’s eyes it matters not if you are male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free.  For saving faith in Christ is the free gift of God for all His creation. There are no favorites or bias in this gift.  In God’s eyes, faith is Jesus is the dividing line.

On the other hand, in the eyes of our fellow creatures the distinction of male and female, national identity and vocation defined narrowly, remain.   Not only do they remain for the baptized into Christ, they are elevated and serve a greater purpose, that of being a means of which God uses to demonstrate His kingdom come on earth. 

This is the reason Paul encourages husbands to love wives as Christ does the church and wives to willingly place themselves under their husbands.   This is why Paul doesn’t tell servants to abandon their posts, but rather work as if serving God Himself.  This is why Paul commends overseers to treat servants justly, because God Himself is over the overseer.  In doing these things, God uses our very being, our stations in life, our sexual identity, our vocations broadly defined to demonstrate what it means for His creatures to live rightly – both before God and Man.  God does not destroy the physical distinctions in baptism, rather- he destroys unbelief and graciously calls us His children to faith in Christ, who are set free to live under Him in His kingdom as male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free.