I have a bowl of M&M’s on my table at my home. Every time that I walk by I am reminded of the words of Paul, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28. All the candy is different on the outside but the same on the inside (I like the regular M&M’s). We all are the same, in Jesus.
It wasn’t always that way; I remember the Civil Rights movement in the early 60’s. I saw a man, a younger man lead a movement to bring equality to all peoples. I remembered Dr. King step into the spotlight with grace and dignity. All of this was before I became a believer, and I wondered why would a man like that willingly put himself into all this mess? How could he continue and come out with any kind of success? Then came the “I have a dream” speech where he laid it all before us. I began to make some sense because this was a place where black and white could live together and nobody cared. He was talking about the Church as it should be, Heaven as it will be. He was talking about my M&M’s.
Getting back the Scripture above, we see that Christ destroyed racial discrimination. We look at the idea of “Jew nor Greek”; we know that the Jewish people were the chosen people of God. They were a blessed people. The Greeks on the other hand were not blessed, they were Gentiles so they were not the chosen ones, but in God there is no difference.
We also need to look at the idea of “slave nor free”. In the book of Luke, chapter 18, verses 9-14 we see a parable of the two men going to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a Tax Collector. The Pharisee gave thanks to God that he was not like the Tax Collector and the Tax Collector prayed for mercy because he was a sinner. We see two classes of people. One a highly respected man, a Pharisee. The other, from what was considered the second lowest order of life in the universe, a tax collector (second only to a leper). But Jesus’ parable clearly shows that it is attitude of the heart that God is concerned about not the outward display!
The last part of the verse that we are looking at is “male and female”. My wife has different gifts than I have and she uses them very well. I have different gifts than she does, but that does not mean that it makes either one of us better than the other. We have learned to mend the gifts together in our ministry. That is what God wants us to do in our ministry, to blend all the gifts into one body.
The goal is to have your church, marriage, relationships look like a bowl of M&M’s. Our church should look like that bowl, all different on the outside, but in the inside, hopefully where God resides, to be the same.
May God Bless all of us, this day.
