Ephesians chapter 2, verse 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.

This verse is such a powerful picture of what God is doing in the church at Ephesus at this point. So you have

Jews and Gentiles together in the same church, two groups of people that have historically been

divided. You see this language of a dividing wall of hostility.

And that's a pretty accurate description of the way Jews and Gentiles related to each other.

But now that Jews had placed their faith in Christ and Gentiles had placed their faith in Christ,

and they found themselves in the same church, Paul writes that Jesus is now our peace.

He himself is our peace.

He's brought us together by his blood shed for both of our sins. He's made us one body where we are in Christ together,

and he has broken down the dividing wall of hostility.

It's a powerful picture of the unifying presence of Christ, the unifying power of the gospel

to bring together people who were once opposed to each other, now coming together as one

in what the rest of this chapter talks about is the household of God, fellow citizens with

the saints, members of the very household of God.

And so I want you to think about the church you're a part of and just ask the

question, is there any division in your church? Because Jesus died to break down dividing walls.

Just think about your relationships with other followers of Christ. Is there any

division that you have right now between you and other followers of Christ? Now, this doesn't

mean that once we're in the church, like we agree about every single thing and that we have the exact

same thoughts about every single detail. That's definitely not the case here in Ephesus. It's not

the case anywhere in the New Testament. You see Paul at different points exhorting different groups

of people to even where your consciences may differ on things, to not miss

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