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what current social or communal structures function like 'middle walls of partition' today?

The passage, plainly, with room to sit with it.

Ephesians 2:14-16

For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.

This letter, traditionally attributed to the apostle Paul, was written to a diverse community of believers in Ephesus, likely in the mid-1st century CE. In this section, Paul is reminding them how Jesus's death transformed their relationship, especially between Jewish and Gentile followers.

What steps can be taken to dismantle 'walls of partition' that create hostility and division in our communities today?

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Read alongside it

  • Galatians 3:28

    This passage similarly declares that in Christ, traditional social and ethnic divisions are transcended.

  • Colossians 3:11

    This verse emphasizes a new identity in Christ that overcomes distinctions like Greek and Jew, slave and free.

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