Human beings are fond of attaching worth based on various distinctions that we have created. We segregated people into various classes based on their ethnicity, social status, gender, etc. At no time was this revealed more than when Paul was writing this letter to the Galatians. The reason for Paul writing to them was because certain Judaisers had crept among the Galatian Christians and were teaching them wrong things, which Paul calls a different Gospel. They were telling them that they needed to be circumcised in order for their conversion to be complete. In other words, they needed to become like Jews. It is on this matter that Paul insists to the Galatians that when they received Christ by faith, they received His fullness and a giving in to the Judaisers would be tantamount to them falling away from grace.

On the backdrop of this, Paul comes to our text at hand and informs the Galatians that in Christ the distinctions have been removed. No one has better access to God because of their ethnicity, social status, or gender and no one has their access denied based on these things. In the same way that all people have sinned without distinction (Romans 3:22-23), is the same way that all those who have believed have been made one in Christ. Put differently, sin equalises all men and Christ equalises all men. Therefore, a Gentile need not become culturally a Jew and a woman need not lose her femininity for these distinctions do not apply in Christ. The Holy Spirit, in this age, has been poured on all flesh – even on the male and female servants (Joel 2:28-29).

1. What other distinctions, other than the ones mentioned, do we apply to people?

2. Are there limitations that you place on yourself or on others based on human distinctions?

3. In what ways does today’s devotion challenge and possibly change your life choices and habits?