Equality

All are equal under God.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. - Galatians 3:28-29

The message in today's reading is more than a statement of equality.  It is a statement of adoption.

As adopted children of God, we are all heirs of the kingdom, regardless of whether we were part of the faith under the law, or came to it from outside the law, with the law being the Jewish Law of Moses.

Women could not inherit under the law, but as heirs of God's kingdom, they can.  The same is true of slaves.  No matter what you were, you are now equal to the son.

This is a powerful and attractive statement.  Who wouldn't want to be raised up out of oppression to be equal to all?

How we are seen by God is not always how we see each other.  In this world, we are governed by laws that may be based on the laws of God, but they don't always reflect the love of God and the trust in man that God has.

So, how do we reconcile the law of man to the love of God?  How do we see each other as brothers and sisters, rather than others?

I don't know if we will ever be ready to abandon our laws and just trust in God.  In every family there is conflict.  So, maybe the answer is to work to change our laws to align them with God's vision for us.

That way we can enforce our laws, rather than reject them, and still get closer to the kingdom.

That would be heaven on earth.

More to come...