For the Apostle Paul, the believer’s the status as “in Christ” makes all the previous social distinctions meaningless, including ethnic and social distinctions.After arguing the Gentile who has come to Christ in faith is not under the Law, he states they are all children of God and are “clothed in Christ” (Gal 3:26-27). He then makes the stunning proclamation that “all are one in Christ,” so there are no Jew or Gentile, no slave not free, no male nor female. Karin Neutel examined these three pairs in detail and concludes Paul is describing “ideal ways to live and to organize society” (16).
The first of the three pairs of relationships Paul mentions is ethnic (Jew nor Gentile), but most appropriate for the main theme of Galatians. If one is “in Christ,” it does not matter if one is born a Jew or a Gentile.
The reason these social distinctions no longer matter is that the one who is “in Christ” by faith is now the offspring Abraham. We are the same family, therefore ethnic and social distinctions no longer matter. The idea of family is important in both Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures. The bonds between brothers were more important than the bonds of marriage – family always came first.
This means there is no point to conversion to Judaism, since there is no difference in Christ. This is potentially the most radical thing Paul has said so far in Galatians. For the agitators, and probably for James, the Gentiles are becoming part of Israel, so they are Jews, no longer Gentiles. Paul claims here that when one has “put on Christ” ethnic distinctions no longer matter. There is no longer an advantage to being Jewish, or a disadvantage to being Gentile (or, form a Gentile’s perspective, no disadvantage to being a Jew or advantage being a Roman). The only status which is significant in the age of the Spirit is being “in Christ.”
The second pair (slave nor free) breaks down one of the most important social distinctions in the ancient word, the distinction between between a free person and a slave. Sociologically, there would be no way a person who a free citizen of Rome (like Paul) would recognize a slave as an equal. In fact, a Roman who had a high status would not recognize a lowly servant at all. Yet here Paul declares that all who are “in Christ” are equal. This means at a shared meal, a free person would share food with their slave as equals. This should be extended by analogy to “rich and poor” (as it is in James), or Roman citizen or non-citizen. Whatever a society considers to be elite or utterly untouchable are now equal in the Body of Christ.
The third pair is perhaps the more surprising since virtually every culture would have made a distinction between male and female. It is possible women were considered second class in the Body of Christ since they could not fully keep the Law (the could not submit to circumcision as a sign of he covenant). Ben Witherington suggested the Galatian agitators may have required that a woman be married to a man who was properly keeping the Law in order to be considered a Christian (Witherington, Galatians, 279). Imagine a shared meal where a young gentile slave woman sat at the same table as a Roman freedman slave owner and shared food. These two people on the opposite ends of the social ladder are equal because their status of “in Christ” trumps any earthly status.
Like Jesus before him, Paul is creating a new family which transcends human family. The members of the churches at Galatia are part of a family now, the family of Abraham, and that new relationship in Christ is more important that earthly family distinction. That the body of Christ is a family is foundation for the argument Paul is making here. If we are in Christ we are a new creation, but we are also part of a new family, adopted by God and therefore responsible to that new family. The old family is left behind and only the new matters.
This is perhaps one of the most applicable passages in Galatians since so much of the American church is separated into social and racial groups.There are not many multi-racial churches, this is a oft-observed problem. But there are not very many churches which mix the wealthy and the poor either. Part of the problem is that wealthy Christians tend to build big churches where they live, not where the poor live. Perhaps the poor would be welcome, but we are not going out of our way to welcome them!
What are other implications for Paul’s vision of equality in the Body of Christ? Does this have something to say about who leads the church? Is this statement a “cosmopolitan ideal” (to use Neutel’s phrase) intended to reform all of society, or is it limited to the church itself?
Bibliography: Karin B. Neutel, A Cosmopolitan Ideal: Paul’s Declaration “Neither Jew nor Greek, Neither Slave nor Free, nor Male and Female” in the Context of First-Century Thought (LNTS 513; London; Bloomsbury, 2015), 16.
Paul utilizes chapter three of his letter to the Galatians, more specifically verses 26-28, to drive home the significance of one’s spiritual status over their earthly status. Essentially, Paul diminishes one’s earthly status. In this passage to the Galatians, Paul touches on three common earthly statuses of the Bible times in which he wrote this letter; those three statuses are Jewish vs. Gentile, slave vs. free, and male vs. female. For example, Roman society was conflicted with slavery, and it impacted the society drastically. The discussion of Jew vs. Gentile was a huge debate and discussion during the time of the letter to the Galatians, and the agitators in Galatia were very focused on the importance of upholding the Law and turning from Gentile to Jew. Circumcision was one of the main issues of the agitators. Obviously, as expressed throughout the letter to the Galatians, Paul does not hold this same sentiment in regards to upholding the Law. Moreover, male vs. female roles were much more drastic and labeled during Bible times than they are in today’s society. Therefore, the point that I am trying to make is that the fact that Paul is willing to dismiss each of these meaningful, significant status labels with his statement in Gal. 3:28 shows that he truly does not care about earthly status, but he is solely focuses on emphasizing how important it is for humans and Galatians to be “in Christ.”
After reading Galatians and Longenecker and Still’s chapter on the letter, it is non-debatable to me that this is the most radical thing that Paul says in Galatians. Because he is willing to dismiss the earthly status labels that dominated this time and essentially determined the importance of a person and what they can and cannot do, I do not think anything in the rest of the letter can be compared in terms of levels of radical. I simply cannot find anything in the letter that is near as radical. That being said, I love what Paul has to say in this passage of chapter 3. I wish that society today could embrace this sentiment that earthly status does not matter in the slightest, when compared to spiritual status. In today’s society, some earthly statuses that dominate conversation and importance seem to be male vs. female, majority race vs. minority race, heterosexual vs. homosexual, Christian vs. non-Christian, rich vs. poor, etc. It seems as if the significance of the spiritual status of whether not a person is “in Christ” has been diminished in the eyes of the public, and the significance has turned to the earthly statuses that are listed above. Today’s society needs to drive home Paul’s sentiment here. Christians need to bring back the significance of earthly status by beginning to avoid focusing on the earthly status of their neighbors.
Lastly, when reading this post, it made me think of some Christian’s belief that woman should not be in leadership roles in the church. Though I am not here to answer that question or entertain that debate right now, it makes me wonder if this passage speaks against that notion. Obviously, one must consider the context of a passage before applying it to concepts in other areas of Scripture, so I do not want to do that carelessly here. That being said, Paul seems to diminish the significance of earthly status here, so should earthly status be considered in leadership roles in churches today? Food for thought.
Ultimately, Paul is saying that those who are “in Christ” have become adopted into the family of God. Paul speaks on adoption throughout his works, and this is another instance of that. Longenecker and Still (2014) say “Those within the family of God are drawn from all parts of humanity, regardless of their sub identities” (p. 101). This correlates with Paul’s thoughts.
One of the issues that arose during Paul’s ministry was the conflict between Jews and Gentiles, in regards to being in the presence of both groups of people. As stated by Longenecker, “Those who belonged to Christ are themselves are incorporated into Abraham’s seed, to whom the spirit had promised” (Longenecker, p. 102). In essence, it is transparent that Paul does not want the conflict between the two groups of people to get in between them remembering where their true identity lies. At the same time, it is clear that Paul does not want the differences between the Jews pertaining to legalism, to hinder their ability to be saved. Furthermore, according to Dr. Phil Long, one of the main themes is the issue of the Gentiles and the Law (Long, 2019). When it comes down to it, this is an issue that Paul had to face when discussing matter in the book of Galatians. Ultimately, though, as stated in Galatians 3:28, he wants to remind the people that legalism of Judiazers is preventing them from the true meaning of what it means to be saved. At the end of the day, Paul’s biggest fear he faced was making sure that the Gentiles and Jews can exist, while also helping maintain order in the Church.
Paul makes it very clear that a person’s gender, economic, racial, etc. status is no longer relevant or important to the body of Christ (Gal. 3:28). The only thing that matters is whether or not a person is “in Christ.” While some of the status’ that were important in Paul’s day are different than important status’ today, many Americans value certain races, economic levels, appearances and genders over other ones. This is an issue present in our country as a whole, the church, and smaller communities. For example, even at Grace, there has been the debate about the separation between worship arts / bible majors and the student athletes. In my opinion, people are going to naturally congregate towards people who are similar because they share more interests, opinions. worldviews, and activities. Though my business classes I have been taught, based on a famous quote by motivational speaker Jim Rohn, that your finances and income is the average of your 5 closest friend’s income. I don’t believe that spending more time with people similar to you is wrong, until it becomes either exclusive or unwelcoming. If differences in a persons characteristics is causing you to exclude them from your circle, then a problem is developing. In addition, it can be crucial to welcome people with different backgrounds and status’ to gain new perspective, learn from them, and broaden and refine your own worldview based on more circumstances than simply your own. While we are all equal, people still have different roles and we can see that through even the different gender roles that men and women are given (Gen 2-3; Eph 5:22-33).
While diving further into what Paul says about gender roles, we can turn to 1 Corinthians. The way Paul deals with the issue in chapter 8 gives us a lot of clarity as to how we ought to handle the present (and past [1 Cor. 11]) issue of who is preaching in the churches. There can be actions a person takes that is not blatantly sinful to God, yet as Christians we should refrain because it could cause other believers to stumble (Longenecker 125). We are “all one in Christ Jesus” and therefore it shouldn’t matter who is teaching or preaching in the church as long as they are submissive and obedient to God. Yet, if a congregation is struggling with a woman preaching and they doubt the authenticity of your church based on passages talking about submissiveness, it may be wise to limit the exposure a woman has to teaching and preaching.
The central theme of this blog post, and how Paul explains how those that are in Christ are without labels of social distinction, can be directly applied to the way we see those who are in Christ today. Personally, observing the way others interact with other churches and their ideologies we can see that Paul’s statements about those who are neither Jew or Gentile should be applied to today as well – meaning that we shouldn’t get so absorbed in what “type” of Christian we are, rather focus on the main point that we are all saved through Christ no matter what label society gives us. Paul in Galatians addresses the main problem of being circumcised vs uncircumcised and whether non-Jewish followers should be – which can be used as an example for modern day society. Longenecker explains that Paul links faith to practical expressions of love: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (TTP 95). This applies to what Galatians 3:28 says as well, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave or free, nor is there male and female, for you all are one in Jesus Christ.” To reiterate the point earlier, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, the church you attend, your political beliefs, etc., we are all seen the same when we are in Jesus Christ. I think modern churchgoers really need to read this passage. We are often so caught up in our own beliefs about certain topics and are so quickly to disagree with others based on them rather than seeing one another as a “brother or sister.” This also applies to who leads the church – It doesn’t matter – anyone can lead with the right intentions and the right guidance by God to teach a congregation that is willing to listen. I do not think this statement is intended to reform all society because there is sin in the world that is out of the control of most Christians. I think this statement is reserved for those in Christ. It brings me back to “brother love” that was read earlier in the chapter 2 – the type of love and faith we share in Christ is reserved for believers. That does not mean we are too not love others as this is a different type of love.
Paul makes sure that he emphasizes throughout many of his books that one’s relationship with God is significantly more important than their earthly status. This means that it doesn’t matter whether you identify (pretty ironic word to use in today’s time within this context) as a Jew or a Christian. What really matters is whether or not you are truly following in the true God. This became a huge conflict while Paul was ministering. The reason for this was because Paul was converting both Jews and Gentiles to follow Christ. You can only imagine the conflicts that they were having. In today’s world there are significant conflicts over things much less important. Women in significant roles in the church is another hot topic. I have been around churches that do not allow women to be in any type of significant roles and then others who are the Pastors of the whole congregation. Paul does not come out and exactly say his thoughts on it in this passage, but he spends a lot of time on how earthly status does not matter. Maybe they are connected, I am not here to say. I would also say that this phrase is intended to reform the world itself. If Christians get to the point where they are only concerned with what is happening in the church and not the whole world they have failed. The Bible tells us so many times that we need to go out into the world and bring others to Christ. So if we are not trying to reform the whole world, what are we doing?
This is an interesting blog as I think this was one of Paul’s biggest topics of controversy back then since status seems like a big thing back then. He fought pretty hard, especially “those who promoted circumcision of Gentile Jesus-followers” to share meals and corporate gatherings with Jewish Jesus-followers (Longenecker and Still, 98). Sharing meals would include communion, and the commemoration of the Lord’s table (Long, 76).He did this vice versa as well for the Gentiles that were against the Jews. I think he could have also extended it to other races and ethnicities besides Gentiles, Jews, men, and women to broaden his vision of equality in the Body of Christ.
I think this can say of who leads in the church even though I think Paul was pointing out more of who can be Christian by doing some Jewish customs. Even though Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:12 about women not to teach or assume authority over men and being quiet, I think he meant that women should not be audacious and quite loud during a church assembly. Being a woman, I can attest to experiencing other women being “loud” and/or gossiping in the Church. Overall, I think anyone can lead in the Church as long as the decisions are in the intention of doing right from what they can best apply biblically in a modern world.
One of the apostles of Paul’s most radical claims is found in Galatians 3:28, where he states that in Christ there is no distinction between Jew or gentile, slave or free, man or women. Such a statement would have seemed bewildering if not absolutely opposed to the teachings of the Old Testament in light of seeing Israel as “God’s chosen people”. However, for Paul, being in Christ, saved by his grace, is not limited or restricted by any ethnic, racial, social, or gender status. The gospel of Christ connects us to a calling higher than any other found in our human existence, this is found in Paul’s belief that those who have faith in Christ are now the offspring of Abraham. The ethnic or racial distinctions of people are no longer of importance in light of one’s relationship with Christ.
The implication of such a claim means that once a gentile becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, it is no longer necessary to convert to Judaism or begin observing the law. This claim would have drastically opposed the perspective of the agitators, who were arguing that the recent gentile converts must begin observing Jewish practices and become Jew. Paul attacks this idea within the sentiment of Galatians 3:28, for if one is in Christ, such a conversion to Judaism is opposed to what the gospel actually taught. This idea is not completely devoid of contextual connection to the Old Testament, where passages such as Isaiah 49 highlight God’s desire for the whole earth to receive salvation. While its original context may not have included the removal of ethnic distinction, in light of the Jewish Messiah’s actions on the cross, such an interpretation is justified and aligned with the narrative of all scripture.
In Galatians 3:28 Paul talks about the reality of Jews and Gentiles alike. There is now no distinction in the eyes of the Lord. We are now all one family in the eyes of the Lord. The concept of no Jew or Gentile alike was a major shock to the culture. This is an implication that we are not our sub-identity’s. We have our identity in Christ, we are drawn from all parts of humanity. After the final sacrifice of our savior, we are clothed and incorporated into Abraham’s offspring. “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:29 ESV). Our lives are solidified in Christ, and we are counted equal to all. Within this blog you make points addressing that we are adopted by God within the Lord’s family. You no longer must be Jewish to be accounted as a part of the family of God. “Those who “belong to Christ” are themselves incorporated into “Abraham’s seed” (3:29), to whom the spirit had been promised” (Longnecker, Pg.102). This statement is not referring to society but those who have chosen to put their faith in Christ. There is an invitation to be in the family of God through the sacrifice of Jesus. Paul throughout his writings bridge the gap of Jew and gentile. Within in the reality that is being conveyed we see the family of God being built through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This message is given to all people regardless of their human identities. Paul throughout Galatians conveys this message clearly. May we make no mistake in the message that we are all accounted equal under the eyes of God through His son Jesus. We no longer must observe the law, but the law has now been fulfilled. We can take rest in knowing that the final sacrifice has been made.
the impact this claim causes is immense in that day and still is today. This claim means that all people can have their sins forgiven without having to become a part of the Jews. It means that all people can now have fellowship with others without becoming unclean. One reason why the Jews could have a problem is that they feel that them being are the chosen people of God no longer matters which might have been made them be important but on that note, not that it matters because they never really done anything with this beside them feeling like they are better then others. It means that we no longer have follow the whole Jewish law and don’t have make yearly sacrifices for our salvation, but now can have our sins forgiven all at once. It also means that God sees all people equally never making it a big problem that people have differences. It changes the fact that women and men have to be separate and now can be together and eat at the same table, now the gentiles and Jews can now live in unity as one in the body of Christ. The only difference there are is the one between the believers and unbelievers
I believe that Galatians 3 is really important to all believers and Christians. In this chapter, we can see that, by faith, we find our identity with Jesus. All believers are one in Christ, and we are all the children of God. But there are so many different churches with different roles and ideas in this world. And we cannot unite or praise God together. We are all not different from each other any more because we are all saved by our Lord Jesus, and we are all one in Christ.
Paul said that there is neither Jew nor Greek, and this is one of the greatest revolutions. We are all equal in God’s eyes, and God loves everyone equally. There could be racism between Jews and Greeks, or they could divide from each other, but Paul messaged them that when we are in Jesus, then there’s no difference, racism, or dividing from each other. This shows that Jesus is our identity as believers, and we are all the same and one in Christ. I believe that Paul knew there were differences between Jews and Greeks, which is why his message showed that everyone was equal and stood before God. Jewish believers believed that if they accepted and gave in to the law, then they could be Abraham’s seed. But Paul told them that if we are Christ, then we are Abrahamic seed and heirs of God. It does not matter if we are Jews, Asians, Greeks, Americans, Africans, Latinos, or under the law; as long as we are Christians, then we are all one and heirs of God.
Hi, Marc
I also believe that the law is fulfilled, so there are no Jews or Greeks anymore. Since we accepted Jesus as our savior, we are all family, and we are all one in Christ. Why are all Christians still far away from each other and unable to unite? Sometimes I am not sure why they cannot be in the same church and worship our Lord Jesus together. Paul’s message was from God, and his gospel is the truth. So we all should stand for the truth so that we can obey God. Jesus told us to love each other and our neighbor as we love ourselves. We should practice this in our lives, and we all should treat each other equally, as God loves us equally.
Paul’s vision of equality challenges traditional notions of leadership within the church. In many historical contexts, leadership was often hierarchical with certain individuals holding more authority and power than others. Paul’s teachings emphasize the idea that in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. This implies a radical equality among believers, regardless of their social status or gender. As such, Paul’s vision challenges the traditional power structures within the church and suggests that leadership should be based on spiritual gifts and qualifications rather than societal distinctions. Paul’s ideas on leadership may be able to have a larger outreach to impact all of society, but he was probably more focused on how he could fix the inequalities found within the church rather than all of society.