Both Israel and the Church have been given the dual mission of “integration[1] and mission”.
In the Old Testament, integration was about Israel treating foreigners as natives within its borders, according to the Law of Moses. In the New Testament, integration is about the Holy Spirit bringing native and foreigner, or “Jew and Greek” as it is called in the New Testament, together as beloved brothers and sisters in Christ. We also see that the three vulnerable groups of the Old Testament, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, are represented in the New Testament by the Greek, the slave and the woman.
Just as God wanted to use Israel as a holy instrument to reach the other foreign peoples outside Israel with the Word of God to the ends of the earth, so God sends the church to all nations to testify about Jesus to the ends of the earth.
The twofold mission given to both Israel and the Church is thus to treat the stranger within us as ourselves, i.e., integration, and to reach out with the gospel to the stranger outside of us, i.e., mission.
In this chapter, we will first look at how the Lord wants Jews and Gentiles within the church to be integrated into something new with the help of the Holy Spirit. Then in chapter 31 we will look at how the Lord baptizes the disciples in the Spirit which creates a missionary zeal to go out into all the world and invite all nations to the heavenly feast.
When you are saved, you are included in the people of God on equal terms, regardless of whether you are a Jew or a Gentile (or “Jew or Greek”, which is a synonymous term). God has made both peoples into something new. If the people of God were previously defined by being born a Jew, they are now defined by being born again by the Spirit through faith in Jesus, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile.
This is a fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to be a blessing to “all nations” as we read in chapter 4.[2] As a united and new people, Jews and Greeks together can praise God “with one voice”.[3]
As a consequence of both Jews and Gentiles being saved on the same terms, namely by believing in Jesus as Lord, the old order is gone. Should we, against all odds, still distinguish between Jew and Gentile in the church, we rebuild the walls that Jesus tore down and reinforce the old enmity that Jesus died to remove.
But by inviting new people, strangers, into the kingdom of God, we participate in God’s creative joy and tear down that dividing wall one brick at a time.
In the Old Testament, we saw that God had a special love for the three groups “the stranger, the widow and the fatherless”.[4] In the New Testament, “the Gentile, the slave and the woman” correspond to these vulnerable groups. But in the New Testament, it is no longer just a matter of caring for the vulnerable groups, but of bringing them together and integrating them into something new:
“26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
(Ga 3:26-29)
“11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”
(Col 3:11)
In the church, everyone who believes in Jesus is “a new creation”, whether they are Jew or Greek.[5] But not only that, just as ethnicity or skin color is not supposed to matter, neither is social status or gender. In the church, we are no longer Jew or Greek, native or foreigner, but brother and sister in the family of God.
In the above Scripture, Paul opposes hostile nationalism, unjust living conditions and patriarchal power structures. Of course, being proud and happy about your nationality, work or gender is not wrong in itself, but if we define ourselves by this at the expense of others, we build dividing walls against other people and create injustice and oppression which inevitably become a breeding ground for conflict. Our mission as peacemakers is to proclaim that the hostile walls that exist between peoples and nations, groups and communities, are torn down in Christ.[6] Everyone who believes in Jesus belongs together and is part of the family of God, no matter what race we come from or what our job is. The oppressive structures that have existed among us in the past need to be voluntarily replaced by a loving community where we look at each other as brothers and sisters.[7] The animosity between us is gone because we now belong together. Sure, we can sometimes quarrel like siblings, but we must not fight like enemies.
Since the vast majority of wars start because of nationalism, class division, injustice or poverty, it is therefore our task as peacemakers to among us Christians stop having our primary identity in our nationality, in our work, our authority or in our wealth, but instead to have our identity in Christ.[8] By spreading the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth, God’s love affects individuals, leading to the reconciliation of people with people and the increase of love between people. By proclaiming to the world that God loves us regardless of our nationality or our wealth, and by working to reduce oppression and injustice in the world, and thus the breeding ground for war, we can bring peace and reconciliation to our earth.
Heavenly Citizens
Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus are thus together thepeople of God, the Church. Believing Greeks, Gentiles, Swedes and immigrants are thus members of the family of God:
“19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,”
(Eph 2:19)
The first word I want to highlight in the above verse is “citizen”. In New Testament times, one could become a citizen of a city or a kingdom. For example, Paul was a citizen of Rome[9] and of the Greek city of Tarsus.[10]
A Roman citizenship could be obtained either by birth, by retirement from the army, by being freed as a slave by your master or by buying it. Being a citizen meant rights, benefits, privileges, travel pass, voting rights and opportunities for influence. For example, a Roman citizen was entitled to a fair trial and could not be flogged in any way[11] or crucified without the express permission of the emperor. A Roman citizen also had the right to “appeal to Caesar” and thus have his case heard in Rome.[12]
In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul writes:
“20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”
(Php 3:20)
Just as a citizen of the city of Ephesus could at the same time be a citizen of Rome, a city he might not even have visited, so a Swedish citizen can at the same time be a citizen of the kingdom of God. We live in our country and obey the laws of the land and participate in society, but at the same time we know that our primary citizenship is in heaven, our capital is the heavenly Jerusalem,[13] we live here in the world as sojourners and exiles[14] and if the laws of our country clash with the laws of God, we obey God more than men.[15]
Just as a Swedish citizen living in Russia naturally obeys and respects Russian law, but at the same time does not fully identify himself as a Russian or participate in the Russian armed forces, so a Christian is a guest and stranger in Sweden, obeys and respects the laws of the country, but refrains from participating in the Swedish armed forces, for example.
Just as Jesus left his heavenly abode and came to our world as a stranger, so too we become strangers to the world when we receive our heavenly citizenship.
We who before had nothing in common are now one in Christ. We who were previously defined by what set us apart, we were different peoples, Jews, Greeks, Swedes and immigrants, we are now one new people; the people of God.[16] Of course we are still happy about our origin, our language and our culture, but our primary identity is now in Christ, not in our nation.
The second word I want to study from the above Bible passage Ephesians 2:19, is the Greek word “oikeios”, translated in the Bible as “household”. The word was often used to describe a larger household with a master, children, slaves, parents, grandparents, employees, etc. In such a household, people worked and ate together, but there were still clear differences, for example between the children and the slaves.
Paul declares that even Gentiles, not just Jews, are now “citizens” of God’s household. Gentiles are no longer to be regarded as “guests” and “strangers” in the church. If in the past there were differences in a household between the children of the Lord and his slaves, Jews and Gentiles are now “brothers and sisters” in God’s family and have the same rights as God’s children. In the church, Jews are not the “A team” and Gentiles the “B team”, but both groups have exactly the same rights and opportunities.
The New Creation
This new community, the Church, is “a new creation” and a foretaste of heaven. In a sense, it could be said that the kingdom of Heaven has already come to the “old creation” with the coming of Jesus to earth:
“17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
(2Cor 5:17)
In the kingdom of Heaven, God’s will prevails and there is no sorrow, no pain and no death,[17] but the World is under the power of the Devil[18] and therefore sin, violence, sickness, evil and death flourish here. The Lord is not satisfied with this and will on the day of the Lord judge the sin in the world and stop the evil that is going on.[19]
But who among us can say that we have never sinned? Who among us will go free on the day of judgment? We have all sinned and share in the guilt of the world.
Fortunately, God wants to save us from judgment and forgive us for our sins.[20] This is precisely why God was born as a man in a world full of sin and evil and took our sins upon himself and died on the cross of Calvary so that we who believe in Jesus and confess him as our Lord may have our sins forgiven and be born again into the kingdom of God.[21] Thanks to Jesus’ death, we receive eternal life and now have our citizenship in the kingdom of Heaven.[22]
With the first coming of Jesus into the world, the kingdom of God has already come into the world[23] and until Jesus’ return we live as exiles[24] and sojourners[25] in the kingdom of the World. We live in the world but do not belong to the world.[26] While we pray to our Father that his kingdom will come even more into the world, that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven,[27] we are also actively working to spread the kingdom of God in the world to the ends of the earth.[28] We carry out this mission by witnessing to Jesus, loving our fellow human beings and allowing the Holy Spirit to demonstrate the kingdom of God through healings, miracles, inner divine peace and so on.
In a way, you could say that the old creation and the new creation overlap. We are born again into the kingdom of God but remain in the World. Although the characteristics of the old creation remain, the new kingdom of heaven has begun to come into our world. We still get sick and sin, but at the same time we can be healed and forgiven. We know that one day we will die, but at the same time we believe in the resurrection. It is this new kingdom that we proclaim and try to realize as best as we can in the Church. In doing so, the Church becomes a light in the darkness of society.
Influencing Society
So when we are saved, we become a new creation and begin to live according to the principles of the kingdom of God within our community in the church. But an important question to ask is to what extent do these new principles apply only in the church, or should they also affect society at large?
On the one hand, we cannot force non-Christians to live like Christians. But on the other hand, we Christians are also part of society and cannot live one way in the church and another in society. Moreover, our prayer is that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and therefore we naturally want the whole world to start living according to the will of God. This means that we will inevitably have an impact on secular society, either indirectly by building the church or directly by helping to build society.
Examples of community builders are found in Joseph in chapter 6 and Daniel in chapter 19. Examples of indirect transformation of society are found in the theology of the Church builder Paul.
Let me exemplify this with slavery. Because even though Paul in Galatians explicitly writes that in the church there should no longer be a distinction between “slave or free”,[29] he writes in 1 Corinthians that “each one should remain in the condition in which he was called”, i.e., not fight to be free from his slavery.[30] How does that make sense? Well, we see it in Paul’s letter to his friend the slave owner Philemon, whose slave Onesimus had escaped to Paul and become a Christian.
Paul is careful not to force Philemon to release Onesimus, even if he could,[31] but wants Philemon to “for love’s sake“[32] release Onesimus because he has now become “a beloved brother“[33] to Philemon. According to tradition, Onesimus was released by Philemon and later became Timothy’s successor as leader of the church in Ephesus.
Paul does not explicitly oppose slavery as a social institution, but makes slavery impossible in practice, at least in the church. For how can a Christian slave owner own a beloved brother as a slave? By tearing down the walls between slaves and free within the church, they are also indirectly torn down outside the church as more and more people become part of the church.
Had Paul preached the immediate end of slavery, both in the church and in society, such a message, in a society with as much oppression of women and slavery as existed in New Testament times, would risk creating a social revolution like no other. We must remember that up to 20% of the population of the Roman Empire was made up of slaves. With such a teaching, there is an obvious risk that wealthy, non-Christian men in power will do everything they can to prevent this social change by forbidding their wives and slaves to become Christians and persecuting those who have already become Christians.
Therefore, in love for your non-Christian fellow human beings, it may often be necessary not to take advantage of your own Christian freedom in the church out in society, but instead to continue to live in the social class one was in when one became a Christian.[34] In this way, one is more likely to focus on spreading the message of salvation and thus indirectly bring about the social change that the gospel will inevitably bring about sooner or later.
In other words, it is more important that as many people as possible hear the message of Jesus than that each individual should personally benefit from the freedom Jesus has given through salvation. With this in mind, Paul sometimes gives a number of instructions to different social groups, such as slaves,[35] but not in order to preserve slavery and other oppressive power structures, but to make it easier to spread the gospel.
It is thus a delicate balance between, on the one hand, making use of the Christian freedom that all the saved possess and, on the other hand, the risk that Christian freedom leads to a social revolution that means that salvation in Jesus can no longer be proclaimed.
So we see from Paul the Church Builder that we can change society indirectly by spreading the message of Jesus and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform sinners into saints in the church. The more people who become Christians, the greater the impact on society at large.
If we want to reduce racism and xenophobia in society, we need to actively work on integration in our churches and mission in the world. This, combined with also influencing society with biblical values as Joseph and Daniel did, should be the Christian way to change our world for the better. First of all by building the church, but also by seeking the good of our society by engaging politically within certain limits.
Salt of the Earth and Light of the World
Also Jesus has something to teach us about how we as Christians can help to influence society for the better:
“13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
(Mt 5:13-16)
First, Jesus teaches us that we are “salt”. Nowadays, salt is mainly used for seasoning. Food can be transformed from completely tasteless to wonderfully delicious with just a little salt, but salt that loses its saltiness becomes meaningless and useless. God’s people are the salt of the earth and should add flavor to a lifeless world by spreading the Gospel of Jesus.
But salt also has a preserving and conserving effect. The people of God are the salt of the earth and should ensure that the world does not rot in sin by, for example, working for a fairer world, engaging politically, making more compassionate and xenophile laws, and being present in all kinds of workplaces. If a Christian is in a particular place, there is a great opportunity to improve that environment by spreading love and thus ensuring that sin does not take over too much.
Secondly, the church is a “light” in a dark society. By treating each other well within the church, the outside community will see this and be positively influenced in a more compassionate and xenophile direction. By setting a good example in terms of, for example, integration, the church will be seen in the community and shine as a light in a xenophobic society.
You have read a free chapter of my book Friend of Strangers. If you like this book, please consider purchasing the ebook through Amazon. Since English is not my native language, there may be some linguistic inaccuracies. Please contact me if you find any.
Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[1] The word “integration” is defined as “the joining or bringing together of separate parts into a larger whole”.
[2] Ge 12:3
[3] Ro 15:6
[4] Dt 10:18, Dt 14:29, Dt 16:11–14, Dt 24:17–21, Dt 26:12–13, Dt 27:19, Ps 146:9, Je 7:5–7, Je 22:3, Zec 7:10
[5] Ga 6:15
[6] Eph 2:14–19
[7] Phm 8–16
[8] Ga 3:26–29
[9] Ac 22:25–29
[10] Ac 21:39
[11] Ac 16:37, Ac 22:25
[12] Ac 25:11
[13] Ga 4:26
[14] 1Pe 2:11
[15] Ac 5:29
[16] 1Pe 2:10
[17] Re 21:3–5
[18] 1Jn 5:19
[19] 2Pe 3:7
[20] Jn 3:16
[21] Jn 3:3–7
[22] Php 3:20
[23] Mk 1:15
[24] 1Pe 1:1
[25] 1Pe 2:11
[26] Jn 15:19
[27] Mt 6:10
[28] Ac 1:8
[29] Ga 3:28
[30] 1Co 7:20–24
[31] Phm 8
[32] Phm 9
[33] Phm 16
[34] 1Co 7:20–24
[35] Eph 6:5, Tt 2:9–10, 1Ti 6:1