If you’ve been a part of a local church before, then you know the difficulties that can arise. People rub each other the wrong way, get on each other’s nerves; selfishness rears its ugly head; people murmur and complain; some people may think their role within the church is more important or maybe think that their role isn’t as important as that of another. There are a myriad of ways that sinful behaviors manifest themselves. Simply put, being in community with other people is hard and the same goes for those brought together by Christianity.

In the days of Paul, those tensions probably were exacerbated by the newly comingling of Jews & Gentiles. God had revealed to his followers that he was not only the God of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. If you haven’t noticed by now, this was a tough pill to swallow for the Jews, as Gentiles were viewed as unclean and not even to be associated with. This wasn’t a mistake by the Jews either, as Gentiles were, in fact, “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12, ESV).

Thankfully, God showed his mercy by bringing both Jews & Gentiles close to God and uniting us into one body through the death of another body, that of Jesus Christ (Eph 2:13-14). He removed the hostility between the two groups by removing the ordinances (e.g. circumcision) and spiritually united both Jews & Gentiles into one man (Eph 2:15).

We see this same idea of uniting two bodies into one through the picture of marriage. A man and a woman are brought together and became one flesh in the eyes of God (Gen 2:24). Jesus says in Matthew 19:6, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

In Ephesians 4, Paul urges the Christians at Ephesus to recognize this unity and that it is the will of God that they