Tear Down The Walls

I've been reading Ephesians lately. Chapter 2:11-18 talks about two groups: the uncircumcised and those who call themselves "the circumcision." While the uncircumcised were formerly excluded, in Christ they have been brought near to God.

Verses 15b-18 says: "[Jesus'] purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit."

What struck me is that I always thought Jesus died for our sins. And he did. But not exclusively. According to this passage, his death also put to death hostility between the "us" and the "them" groups. He tore down the "dividing wall of hostility" (v. 14). He died to bring peace.

Which got me to thinking: how often have we Christians just built that wall of hostility right back up? This passage makes it clear that everyone has access to God through the Spirit through Christ's death. But how often do we say (or imply by the way we speak out against things), "Jesus died for everyone—but not you."

"Not you—you're gay."

"Not you—you're a Democrat."

"Not you—you smoke cigarettes."

"Not you—you have tattoos and piercings."

"Not you—you don't like the King James Version."

Through our actions and our stances, sometimes we preach hatred, not peace.

Now, I want to be clear: being uncircumcised isn't a sin, where as some things we stand up against are. Some. But if sin blocks us from access to God through Jesus' death on the cross, well shoot. What did he even die for?

So, if even sinners like me have access to God through Christ, why would we imply that certain kinds of sinners don't?

I'll freely admit that I implied this all over the place in high school. I preached to others about faith a lot, but it was in the context of pointing judgmental fingers at them when they swore. I never would've said that I believe people who swear don't have access to God through Christ, because I didn't believe that. But my actions communicated that to the very people I was trying to reach.

There's a balance between standing up for what's right and acting as if Jesus doesn't love people who aren't doing those things. But the bottom line is: Jesus never asked anyone to clean up their lives until after they developed a relationship with him. We don't need to fix ourselves first. We can't. We bring ourselves to Jesus and he fixes us. Throughout our whole life. He doesn't stop working on us until we reach the pearly gates.