Galatians 3:28

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

I have a secret. M&M’s are a little disappointing to me. Do not get me wrong. I will eat them and even enjoy them. But they are always a bit of a let down. You open a bag and you see all these different colors. And yet they all taste exactly the same. A lot of times I will take a particular color and and eat all of them. Yet if I eat them randomly, it does not change the taste even in the slightest. Of course, part of the problem is that I am only a half-way fan of M&M’s. I wish that the variety would make me enjoy some of them more. But alas, they are always the same, no matter what they look like.

As Christians, this is an apt analogy for us. It is amazing when you look at the church to see its differences. You have men and you have women. There are all nationalities and cultures throughout. You have outgoing people.  You have shy people. You have leaders and you have followers. Some are naturally good at speaking while others may be great at working with their hands. Just looking at the writings of Paul, he acknowledges all the many different gifts and abilities found within the church. Yet we are also one. We are all the same in that we are all clothed in Christ. While what people may see and notice may be completely different, the core of us is still the same: Jesus living in us.

We need to acknowledge this common ground. So many times we want to focus on what separates us and makes us different. Those things are just superficial. They are just what we and others see on the outside. Since Christ should be our entire lives, this small superficial differences should make up only a few percentage points of who we are. What we have to realize is that because of our love and desire for Christ, what we have in common is incomparably greater than what my separate us. In the hardest times, when it is difficult to love one another, we must cling to that common ground. In reality, hating a true fellow bond-servant is actually hating ourselves.

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