Rooted in Love: Living the Christian Life to the FullSample

All One in Christ Jesus

  As we grow in the Christian faith, whether born into it as children or through the leading of the Spirit later in life, we receive treasured accounts of where we have come from and where we now belong. The stories of our ancestors in faith, the teachings of Jesus and the earliest Christians’ first understandings of the meaning of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, all shape our sense of identity. In Galatians, Paul brings his own beliefs home to rest as he shows how each of us is God’s adopted child and heir. He teaches that we are all one in Jesus Christ, with no distinctions because of our background, status, or gender. Our adoption brings us into direct relationship with a loving God, a relationship which is tender and intimate, as we see Jesus himself demonstrating in conversations with his heavenly Father.

We can easily be encouraged by the world to lose sight of our fundamental equality in God, both because injustice and racism are tolerated and because our self-esteem can become so dented by worldly experience that we find it hard to believe God truly loves us. But despite the sin that cuts off some lives at the root, what Paul is telling us about how God sees us is still true. We are all God’s children, and God loves us and promises to be with us on our journey through life.

Whether or not we are parents, it is not difficult to imagine reading with love and tenderness to a child and assuring them that to those who love them and to God they are special and beloved children. What is harder, especially if we have not known secure, loving parenting in our own lives, is to believe that this applies to us too. It does. We are God’s beloved children: with the Spirit in our hearts, we belong to him in Christ

Prayer

Whether we are born near or far away,

whether we have plenty or experience want,

we are all one in Christ Jesus.

Free us from prejudice

and from self-doubt,

that we might clothe ourselves in Christ

and know that we are God’s beloved children.

Amen.

Questions for Reflection

1. Reflect on a time when you have not been treated as an equal. How would you teach people that we are all children of God and all one in Jesus Christ?

2. Are there times when you have spoken or acted out of prejudice? Take time to pause and remember God created us as equals before you respond or react .

3. In moments of darkness and doubt, what can you do to remind yourself that you are a beloved child of God and worthy of God’s love?