thinking bible.

You asked

where do modern societies or communities create 'unlawful' barriers between different groups?

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

Ephesians 2:14

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,

The Apostle Paul, writing from prison to a diverse group of believers in Ephesus (a major city in modern-day Turkey) around 60-62 CE, is explaining how Jesus has united people from different backgrounds, specifically Jewish and non-Jewish, into one new community.

What old dividing walls, perhaps unseen or unacknowledged, might still need to be broken down in our world today?

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

  • Galatians 3:28

    Paul also declares that in Christ, traditional social and ethnic distinctions no longer define worth or belonging.

  • Isaiah 56:7

    An Old Testament prophecy anticipates a future where God's house will be a 'house of prayer for all peoples,' suggesting a breaking down of exclusive boundaries.

  • Acts 10:28

    Peter's vision and subsequent interaction with Cornelius illustrate the early church's struggle and revelation concerning the removal of Jewish-Gentile distinctions.

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