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where do we still create 'us vs. them' divisions that paul's argument might challenge?

Adds the setting and its conversation across both testaments.

Galatians 3:28

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia, likely around the middle of the first century CE. He's passionately correcting what he sees as a serious misunderstanding of how people become right with God – not through following Jewish law, but through faith in Jesus. This verse summarizes a profound implication of that message.

What divisions in our current society might this passage call into question, and how would it reshape our participation in them?

Then — the setting

Paul wrote this letter to various Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia, likely in the mid-1st century CE (around 48-55 CE). His primary concern was to counter certain teachers, often referred to as 'Judaizers,' who insisted that Gentile converts to Christianity must also adopt Jewish practices, such as circumcision, to be truly part of God's people. This created a significant 'us vs. them' dynamic between Jewish and Gentile believers, threatening to fragment the early Christian movement along ethnic and cultural lines. Paul's statement here is a direct theological response to those divisions, asserting that faith in Christ fundamentally redefines identity and community.

Across the Testaments

This passage is in the New Testament and directly challenges the Old Testament's strong emphasis on Israel's distinctiveness, particularly through the Mosaic Law, as a separate people chosen by God. While the Old Testament often invited 'sojourners' to join Israel, it usually implied assimilation into Israelite practices. Paul's argument radicalizes this by asserting that in Christ, the old markers of distinction (Jew/Greek, slave/free, male/female) are superseded as foundations of spiritual status. However, this isn't a rejection of the Old Testament's vision of a universal blessing through Abraham's seed; rather, Paul argues it's the fulfillment of it, where the means of inclusion (faith) transcends ethnic or social markers. The new covenant in Christ creates a 'new creation' that redefines community, not erasing human difference but stripping it of its power to divide people in their relationship with God.

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

Colossians 3:11
Echoes Galatians' theme of new identity in Christ transcending former distinctions like Greek, Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free.
Ephesians 2:14-16
Describes Jesus as breaking down the 'dividing wall' between Jew and Gentile, creating one new humanity.
1 Corinthians 12:13
Uses the metaphor of one body to explain how all believers, regardless of background, are baptized into one Spirit.

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