25 October 2024 Ephesians 4:1-6

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Please read the passage before reading the commentary.

Once upon a time there were many peoples.  We could divide them into the circumcised or the uncircumcised, into Caucasian, Asian, or African, into citizen or foreigner, into rich or poor, into male or female, or into many other groupings as we often try to catalogue people into them or us, friend or foe.  According to St Paul, however, now this God has brought us together into one through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, he can now urge us to live this oneness as he writes as a “prisoner of the Lord.”  He calls us to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  We therefore share in the one Body and the on Spirit.  We have only one Lord and we have all received one and the same baptism and one and the same faith.  We have only one hope in Christ Jesus and we acknowledge only one God and Father.  All this oneness is shared by all of us.  There is no other God or Christ or Spirit or way to pass safely through this life and world.

There is no room for Christian Nationalism but there is room for Christian universalism.  There is no room for Democrats and Republicans: there is only room for cooperation and mutuality.  There is no room East and West, Russia and the United States: there is only room for friendship and mutual cooperation.

The one God we worship is called the God of Abraham.  This God Jew, Christian, and Muslim all adore and worship.  There is no reason for the members of this one God to fight and kill each other.  This one God of Abraham is also the only God who has made all, Jew, Christian, Muslim and all other peoples of the world.  God summons us through Paul to live together in harmony and peace,