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You asked

what were the specific divisions or tensions paul was addressing in the ephesian church, if any?

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, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.

The Apostle Paul, writing from prison, addresses the believers in Ephesus, a major Roman city in Asia Minor. In this part of his letter, he reminds both Jewish and non-Jewish (Gentile) Christians of their shared new identity and reconciliation in Christ, despite their deeply ingrained historical and cultural divisions.

What old walls or distinctions might we be called to break down in our communities today to foster true peace and unity?

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

  • Galatians 3:28

    This verse declares that in Christ, traditional social distinctions like Jew/Gentile, slave/free, male/female lose their ultimate significance.

  • Romans 10:12

    Paul states here that there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, as the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call on him.

  • Colossians 3:11

    This passage echoes the sentiment that in the new self, there is no place for distinctions like Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man.

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