Before faith came, we were guarded under the Law, locked up until faith that was coming would be revealed, so that the Law became our custodian until Christ so that we might be made righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian. You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now if you belong to Christ, then indeed you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:23-29, CEB)
For those who don’t know, I am working on a Doctor of Ministry and I am currently writing my dissertation on the verse we have here.
Some scholars say that Paul is quoting an early creed here. Even with that I was always fascinated with the use of the different conjunctions in the 3 pairs of items in verse 28. Paul uses ‘nor’ and ‘and’ for the joining of the pairs. I always wondered why.
As I was writing a part of the dissertation I looked up ‘and’ in the Merriam-Webster dictionary online, and I found the meaning “used as a function word to indicate connection or addition, especially of items within the same class or type.” I was struck by that last part of the meaning, “especially of items within the same class or type.”
So maybe the reason for the different conjunctions is Jew/Greek and slave/free really are different things, but male and female are the same class, they are the same type. In the eyes of God there is no distinction but in our eyes we set male and female to be different, but Paul is saying they are not different. They are the same type, the same class. Jews are not Greeks and slaves are not free but men and women aren’t different.
Paul is reminding the Galatians and all of us, the things we see that set differences among us don’t mean a thing to God. There is no nationality, no social status, no gender that makes us different. We are all equal in God’s eyes.
Love like Jesus, and don’t separate!
Loving People. Loving God.
aSacredRebel 