Topic: Different Together in Jesus – Our Daily Bread 8 August 2023
`Click HERE for Previous Devotional
Different Together in Jesus
Bible in a Year:
- Psalms 74–76
- Romans 9:16–33
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free.
Galatians 3:28
Today’s Scripture & Insight:Galatians 3:23–29
Business analyst Francis Evans once studied 125 insurance salesmen to find out what made them successful. Surprisingly, competence wasn’t the key factor. Instead, Evans found customers were more likely to buy from salesmen with the same politics, education, and even height as them. Scholars call this homophily: the tendency to prefer people like us.
Homophily is at work in other areas of life too, with us tending to marry and befriend people similar to us. While natural, homophily can be destructive when left unchecked. When we only prefer “our kind” of people, society can fracture along racial, political, and economic lines.
In the first century, Jews stuck with Jews, Greeks with Greeks, and rich and poor never mingled. And yet, in Romans 16:1–16, Paul could describe the church in Rome as including Priscilla and Aquila (Jewish), Epenetus (Greek), Phoebe (a “benefactor of many,” so probably wealthy), and Philologus (a name common for slaves). What had brought such different people together? Jesus—in whom there’s “neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free” (Galatians 3:28).
It’s natural to want to live, work, and go to church with people like us. Jesus pushes us beyond that. In a world fracturing along various lines, He’s making us a people who are different together—united in Him as one family.
Reflect & Pray
How can you actively reach out to people who are different from you? What could you do this week to bridge ethnic or economic divides?
Jesus, I praise You for working to bring our fractured world together.
ALSO READ: CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW US ON TWITTER ⊗ OPEN HEAVEN ⊗ JOEL OSTEEN DEVOTIONAL⊗ ABOVE ONLY ⊗ OUR DAILY BREAD ⊗ SEEDS OF DESTINY ⊗ JOYCE MEYER DEVOTIONAL ⊗ RHAPSODY OF REALITIES ⊗ JOHN HAGEE ⊗ MFM DAILY DEVOTIONAL ⊗UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHESTDCLM DAILY MANNA ⊗ JOHN PIPER DEVOTIONAL ⊗
