After the Tables

Community from Division

Week 4 ~ September 7, 2026

This week we moved from understanding who we are and what we have in Christ to how those truths influence our life within and as the church. Paul transitions into the main thrust of his letter – peace with each other is possible because God is our peace.

There are a number of ways this peace with God, with ourselves, and with our fellow believers works itself out. Let’s think this week about developing unity among our church relationships, particularly with the metaphors Paul uses. We are likened to a body, fellow citizens, and a building. I want to highlight our shared commitment to each other as a body. Paul writes the following:

Ephesians 2:14-16 (ESV)
¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

The first community to which Paul likens a gathering of saints, a church, is one body. He will return to this later in his letter, as well, which is why I want to direct us here this week. The qualities of this body here, however, are quite revealing

• Dividing walls of hostility are broken down
• The law of commandments are abolished
• Peace made by creating one new people
• Reconciled to God through the cross

The single-most important truth for us to meditate on is this: God is responsible for every element of a church’s existence. He broke down the dividing walls. He abolished the law. He created the unity of peace. He reconciled us in one body through the cross. The continuing impact of the church is completely reliant on God. In ourselves the church will fail. God must do the work. We must live that work out as He directs us.