08/07/2026
Ephesians 2:14-22 NRSV
“For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and had broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us, abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So, he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
One of the first things I noticed in these verses is Paul writes “For he is our peace….”. What a powerful statement from a man that is writing this letter from prison. Not just as a run of the mill prisoner that belongs there, nope. Paul is writing this unjustly in prison for no other reason than he was preaching and teaching Jesus Christ. He writes here that something that some skip over and focus on the dividing wall and Christ being the cornerstone. Before all that it takes understanding, he is our peace. Because if we look at the last set of verse, we covered two weeks ago, Paul writes about two groups that hated each other. John Wesley writes about this verse and the dividing wall the gets broken down that we continue to build it back up, why? Because we forget he is our peace. We can’t begin to bust down the wall when still have so much hostility. We will just put up some new bricks. If we really go and look at how important this is.
Paul tells us here in verse 14 that Jesus is our peace. Mankind has and will always hate each other by nature. We will continue to think we are better than our neighbors on the other side of the wall. Why we build a bigger wall or build back the wall that was attempted to be torn down. So, Paul writes here that Christ is our peace, but why or how? In verse 15 he tells us. There he says Christ died on the cross thus abolished what seperates us thus making Peace. So, he is Peace and He makes Peace, but what do we take or do with this. We imitate. In verse 17 it says he came to proclaim that Peace to those who were far off and to those who are near. You can take that as saying he came to preach to those right in front of Him and those far away, or you can look at it like I do and see we are to be like him. His reach has lasted 2000 plus years because His walk affected people. He dropped seeds everywhere he went. Sometimes those that are far off is that neighbor that keeps building back up the wall you keep tearing down. The more seeds you plant the more he gets to understand the Peace that not only surpasses all understanding but only made by Christ and can only be distributed by Christ and is done so by using us. We accomplish this by What Paul tells us in verse 18 where he says through Christ, we both (both being us and our neighbor) have access to God through the Holy Spirit. It is when we truly understand that, that the walls start to permanently come down. It is why Wesley said it is us that keep putting that wall back. When we take us out of the picture, all that’s left is the cross that God uses as the battering ram to take down the wall.
Paul was extremely wise and knew what would happen. I believe Paul in his God-given wisdom knew what we would have gone on today. The division that grows more and more between not just the right and left, but from within the church itself. In these verses, Paul talks about divisions. In that day it was division between Jew and Gentile. Two groups that realistically hated each other. The Jews thought themselves better than everyone else because they followed Laws and customs and were God’s chosen. Gentiles hated the Jews because of this. Sounds a lot like the political world we have going on right now. Christ’s death tore the veil in two that separated the Inner Temple to the Holy of Holies and in doing so, also tore down the wall the separated Jews from gentiles and in today’s age, Gentiles from Gentiles. We have today more denominations than can be counted. Most say they are right and all others wrong. Most wouldn’t or couldn’t go to another church unless forced to for family. Why? Well Paul tells us in verse 20 that if The Church was built on the “foundation of the Apostles and Prophets with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone”, that all buildings would fit framed together. We have what we have today because Man has caused division. Man has caused denominations. Man became the cornerstone of each individual church. Paul, Peter, James, John....all knew that we would have numerous church bodies, but Paul tells us here that if all were based on a correct foundation of the Gospel, and built with the chief cornerstone being Christ, that all pieces, all building, all “denominations” would still fit together perfectly. That is the difference between religion and relationship. Most look at the church as a place we visit or gather on Sunday, but when Sunday comes and goes and the gathering is over, we as THE church..... still march on. We as THE Church still shine a light throughout the week. We as THE Church still point all to Christ. Our church building is the place where we gather but our walk is what makes a difference.
“....show me Faith without works(actions or walk), and I will show you Faith through my works(actions or walk).” (James 2:18)
James knew like Paul that without us understanding the church that we can never be the church and in turn our faith would be nothing but dead because nobody will ever see whose we are. We focus a lot on doing whatever WE please because we live in Grace, but they entire reason for walking out what has been given to us is not because we can do as we please, but we should be living a life of doing as He pleases. Like we talked before our life should be walked out understanding we may be the only Gospel, the only version of Christ, or the only Bible some will ever see.
The cross is supposed to be the reason for no separation but it has become a reason for separation.
Blessings,
Pastor Jack
