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Box 159, Carnation, WA 98014. ----------------------------------------------------------------- For more information, contact Return to God, P.O. Box 159, Carnation, WA 98014-0159; email: glenna@halcyon.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Unity in Messiah Jesus" by Saul Wallach (an article from Return to God Magazine, Volume 1 Number 2, page 3). When this article was written, Saul Wallach was a Messianic Rabbi of Congregation Emmaus, a Messianic Congregation. Congregation Emmaus' Meeting Facility: 124 Plaza, 1600 124th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA 98005 (206) 454-0177; Office: 515 116th Avenue NE Suite 225, Bellevue,WA 98005 (206) 454-9958. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "United in Messiah Jesus" is the ideal for the church body, yet for most of history that has not been true. Politics and different theologies have caused divisions. The division between Jew and non-Jew has been most apparent. Jews have been persecuted in the name of Jesus by misguided Gentiles. Jews have been perceived to have higher status than non-Jews, being God's "chosen people". Israel's role as God's chosen people is frequently misunderstood. We often think of "chosen" in the sense of "better", but that isn't God's intent. Israel was chosen to fulfill a many faceted role. A significant part of that role was to bring forth the Messiah and to be a light to the nations, to instruct them in the way of walking with the Lord. In fulfilling that role, Israel was to be holy, or set apart from the nations as God's people. Did that mean that other nations were excluded from relationship with God? Not at all! Before the time of Jesus many of the people in the Temple courts were non-Jews, commonly referred to as God-fearers. A God-fearer, however, was considered a second-class citizen. They usually sat in the back of a synagogue and in the Temple there was a separate area called the Court of the Gentiles. Gentiles were considered to be outside of the community. Yet in the Torah, God instructed the Israelites to bring non- Jews into the nation. Aliens were to be part of the worshipping community. "The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt..." -- Leviticus 19:34 "You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you... You are to consider them as native- born Israelites..." -- Ezekiel 47:22 With the coming of the Messiah, the dividing wall between Jew and non- Jew has been destroyed and Jesus has become our peace. We have position in Messiah Jesus because of our faith in Him. As Scripture tells us, believers in Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile are one body: "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility." -- Ephesians 2:14-16 We see in Acts that God showed Peter that there cannot be a separation between Jews and non-Jews. There had to be a unity in Jesus: Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right"...The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles...Then Peter said, "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have..." -- Acts 10:34-35, 44-48 The status of being Jewish or non-Jewish is not the question -- what is the question is whether you're living a scriptural lifestyle. With scripturally correct lifestyles, not only can Jew and Greek be one, but Jew and Arab or any other nationality can be one. Living a Messianic lifestyle, celebrating the feasts and learning about the roots of the Judeo-Christian faith give this unity. Your lifestyle should partake of the root-system of our faith, Jesus: "If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you." -- Romans 11:17-19 We're grafted in and gain our nourishment from the root. We must lift each other up, not tear each other down. Both Jew and non-Jew must act in a lifestyle community of faith, living what Scripture says. We are ambassadors of reconciliation and we should act like it and walk in it. CHURCH CHOSEN TO BE A LIGHT Just as Israel is a chosen people, believers in Jesus are a chosen people. "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" -- 1 Peter 2:9-10. The role of the church and Israel's role coexist and each is chosen to fulfill God's plan in many wonderful ways. Israel and the believing community are a family and need to act like family. Like a family, you don't always agree with everything the members do, however, you do support them. We must support them and pray for them with all our hearts! Believers in Jesus are chosen to bring forth the Good News to all nations. Individuals and communities may have different callings to speak to the needs of different cultures, but the reward is the same for all. We should be acting with our gifts in the body. One is the eye, another the arm and another the hand. We are all needed to fulfill God's plan, with unity in Messiah Jesus. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"... But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other... Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." -- 1 Corinthians 21-27. Bible quotations are from the New International Version (copyright 1985 by the Zondervan Corporation).