The heart of Jesus’ message of good news (the Gospel) is that God is reconciling all things in and through Him. He is literally reuniting heaven and earth through His Body. Jesus’ invitation to those who would follow after him was to be reconciled - first to God, then to one another. The church would be the community through which this message of reconciliation would be made visible for the world to see. The challenge for the early Church was demonstrating this reconciliation in the various social settings that its people lived. The First Century world was not interested in reconciliation; it was challenging for diverse groups of people to live in unity while the world around them continued to be divided along racial, economic, social, gender, and political lines. How can people from all walks of life find common ground and live in peace and harmony with God and with each other? The Apostle Paul believed that only “in Christ” could Jesus’ vision of unity be realized.

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