no distinctions

Col. 3:11 (NLT)
In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

When you trust in Jesus and are clothed by him, you have a new life. You can follow Jesus. The sins that would weigh you down become meaningless to who you are. They no longer define you. You are defined by your clothing. Jesus wrapped.

The result of being in Jesus is a new life where you are capable of denying unhealthy desires and the need to control. No more using people or manipulating people. So, what are the end results? Your new life connects you to a community. Where others who have put on Christ share your life. Together, you begin to mirror how Jesus would live if he were you.

The first thing that happens in this new life is distinctions that separate disappear. Our human categories no longer apply. Sin doesn’t define us, and neither does what we are before we connect to Christ. The categories Paul uses are ones that make a clear separation of people pursuing God in his day. Jew and everyone else. Those who become Jewish before they come to Christ, and those who don’t. Those who are a specific cultural group, “uncivilized,” literally, “Scythian.” These are the mean and nasty, uncouth ones of Paul’s day. Must be like the “Siths” of Star Wars! Coming to a theater near you. And those who are separated by circumstances in life. Slave or non-slave. When you are clothed with Jesus, you are hidden with him. Those who choose the new life live the new life.

Disciples of Jesus show the new life by defining who they are by what they hold in common with each other. They don’t need laws that tell them not to discriminate. How do you make a distinction with Jesus being compared to Jesus?

I have always been wary of Christian organizations that make use of human distinctions when governing their group. Quotas of so many men or so many women, so many people of one race or one culture or another. Do we trust each other to serve each other? If we have been clothed with Jesus, why do we still focus on human differences?

No, Paul shows us what true reality really looks like, when you watch disciples in action with each other. His description is coming up.