The Weekly Word - A Devotion for the Week of June 29
But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. (Ephesians 2:13-14)
Some of us might remember when the Berlin Wall was torn down in November 1989. News coverage depicted thousands of people with sledgehammers and axes as they crumbled the wall apart bit by bit, destroying a barrier that had stood between East and West Germany for nearly 30 years. As the wall came down, people on both sides were united in freedom and peace. It was a monumental occasion and a cause for celebration not only in Germany, but around the entire world.
Jesus Christ has the power to do something similar among us, His people. Christ’s death on the cross brings us closer to God in our individual relationship with Him, demolishing the barrier (sin) that keeps us at arm’s length from Him. But equally important and powerful is the fact that Christ’s death also brings us together as one people, unified in the Body of Christ.
Christ didn’t unite just the Jews and the Gentiles. His love unites all of us – every last person on Earth. We are called by Him to love the people He created in His image, and no one, regardless of race, lifestyle, beliefs, political affiliation, socioeconomic status or religion, is excluded from that love.
If we accept it and allow it work in us and through us, Christ’s transformative love has the power to break down all hostilities that exist among us and all walls that stand between us.
Lord, You know my heart. You know where and against whom my hostilities are aimed. Give me the courage, grace and humility to break down these walls within myself first, so that I may then turn outward toward all Your people in unity, love and peace. Amen.