No Jew nor Gentile

Discipleship Devotional, March 26th, 2025

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
— Galatians 3:28 (KJV)

Christianity does not recognize any inequality between people’s races, tribes/ethnicities, social class, etc. Scripture teaches that we are all one in Christ. Unlike human sinful nature, which likes to exalt self and consider oneself better and superior to others, in Christ there’s no such thing. Christ was with the rich and poor; He was with Jews, Samaritans, and even Gentiles; He certainly is not given to discrimination.

As believers, we must therefore start renewing our minds with God’s word. We must start re-educating ourselves to see people first as brothers and sisters in Christ. We mustn’t judge people based on their ethnicity. Despite the fact that there may be certain tendencies that people from particular ethnicities or races may exhibit, we are not to judge people that way. We must believe the best about people. We must see people as Christ sees them.

In the anchor text above, the Apostle Paul also said that “there’s neither male nor female.” So spiritually, we are all one, and there’s no difference between the sexes. This is not a contradiction to the biblical order of marriage. The husband is the head of his own wife, and that is for the purpose of order in a home. A man is not the head of a woman who is not his wife. In other words, outside the marriage institution, men and women are no different. Only within the marriage institution is there an order, because nothing orderly can have two heads.

He also said “there is no bond or free,” meaning there’s no slave or free. So even though throughout history, people have enslaved each other, and some have even tried to use the Bible to endorse it (like what happened in the United States), scriptures clearly show that in Christ, there’s nothing like that. Believers ought to walk in love. We must esteem others better than ourselves. This is what agape love is about.

PRAYER:
Help me, Lord, to renew my mind and take away discriminatory thoughts from my mind. Amen.