The critical verses in this text may be verses 14 and 19:  “¹⁴For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. ¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household…”

We are living in an age when there seems to be more separating people than unifying them– Democrats from Republicans, conservative from liberal, straight from LGBTQ, wealthy from poor and, well,  you pick your favorite set of labels.   In the midst of this we have the writer of Ephesians (perhaps not Paul) telling us that there is a oneness to citizenship in the household of God that transcends all of these differences.

Arlen Hultgren, professor emeritus of New Testament at Luther Seminary in St Paul, makes this comment about the text:  It is a sad fact that, even though the world is shrinking and we have possibilities of communication like never before, the world is fragmented into so many different groups and camps. The church can model the barrier-free life that Christ has brought.

He goes on to challenge the church— really us— with this thought:  We are all family, and no one is to be treated as a stranger or alien. Differences in race, class, gender, economic condition, politics, and opinion exist, but they are not barriers to living in unity in Christ. The congregation is a laboratory for the kingdom of God.

How do you suppose the words of verse 13, “…in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ….” were first heard in a house church somewhere in Asia Minor where a fledging community of faith, barely 30 years old was gathered in the midst of a society dominated the oppressive foreign regimé of Rome?

For that matter, how do we model ”the barrier-free life that Christ has brought”?   How are we the laboratory for the kingdom of God?