Eph. 2:15b

Please note, the most recent one is on the top. They then appear in reverse order.

15b His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace.

What is God’s plan for all mankind? Surely it is to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace. In our fallen state we foster individualism, patriotism, ethnocentrism, all sorts of self-protectionism that actually keep us apart. Yet most people think that they must develop a strong me/they or us/them stance in order to preserve the tribe or some human system that they belong to and need to defend.

Few people ever give one thought as to God’s desire. God's desire is surely to crash all the walls that divide us human beings. That is God’s purpose – to break down the walls that divide us, to make peace, not by compelling people to do everything to protect their groups, but by deliberately disowning the desires to consolidate groups as the way to peace.

I am overawed by God’s costly provision to make this possible – providing Jesus in whom all people are, finally, one.

Paul lived in and age of Pax Romanica. The wide-spread Roman Empire ruled most of the known world at the time. They preserved peace, as best they could, by military might. It was a precarious peace, to be sure, because they had to put down one revolt after another. The Jews had their own vision of how to bring about unity, by reestablishing the nation of Israel as at the time of King David. That was a flawed hope, as history proved.

All such attempts to bring peace will utterly fail because they are all built on the assumption that people will voluntarily give up one allegiance, let’s say allegiance to a tribal rule, for a greater allegiance like allegiance to the Empire or Emperor. History blasts that hope.

God’s plan is the only plan that is based on reality. Each of us seeks to live self-sufficient. That instinct can only be broken by a radical move of God – to change us in Christ so that we, as God, place all relationships on the basis of divine love for all mankind.

Our history books describe the futility of human efforts to love enemies. Enemies are usually those whom we fear or are different from us. The theme of World History is to hate enemies with a passion. That is considered meritorious. In the Kingdom of God that is anathema.