Equality and Acceptance

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

—Galatians 3:28

 

At the end of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. alludes to the apostle Paul’s words in Galatians 3:28. This verse seems to strike an almost modern note about human equality. Contemporary interpreters have updated Paul’s statement and added pairs to the three original ones: “neither gay nor straight,” “neither healthy nor disabled,” and “neither black nor white.” While these creative rewritings make Paul’s statement speak to new situations, they also highlight something about the original: These three pairs must have been as relevant in the first century as the additional categories are today.

 

This ideal of unity that Paul shared with his contemporaries was influenced by cosmopolitanism, a popular philosophical idea in the early Roman Empire. Cosmopolitanism’s main component was the conviction that all people are first and foremost citizens of the cosmos (universe) rather than of their local communities. This shared cosmic origin was thought to connect all people with each other and with the divine, and it suggested that all people could live in a unified society rather than be divided into different ethnic and geographic communities. Cosmopolitanism had implications not only for contemporary ideas about ethnic differences but also for ideas about the positions of slave and free and about marriage and the relationship between husband and wife. It, therefore, affected all three of the pairs mentioned by Paul. Galatians 3:28 envisages a social ideal of harmony and connection, where those factors in society that create division and conflict have been removed.

 

If you look up Galatians 3:28, you will see many people try to tell you that this doesn’t actually mean what it clearly says. They say it is taken out of context, yet Paul continues to say this over and over. In Colossians 3:9-11, Paul writes, “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” Romans 3:9 says, “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.” In 1 Corinthians 7:22, Paul again says we are all one in Christ, “For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave.” 

 

Again, in Ephesians 6:8, Paul removes any distinction in mankind, “Knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.” In this verse, he tells the Ephesians that it does not matter who you are, but if you do good, then the Lord will accept you for any other way you might be identified or might identify. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Romans 8:38 says, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come.”  Like the other passages, this message is for all people, including LGBTQ+ individuals.

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Many anti-LGBTQ+ people who call themselves Christians will claim that we are not born with same-sex attractions, and even if we were, God made a mistake. However, God does not make mistakes in his creation, and God did not make a mistake in creating LGBTQ+ people. Psalm 139:13-14 affirms that God made us the way we are, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. Sexual identity and gender identity are components of our very being and are part of who God made each of us to be. All people have been intentionally created by God, including LGBTQ people.  Isaiah 43:1 tells us, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.”

 

On this Labor Day weekend, we should remember that we are all equal and should be celebrated. Labor Day is a day to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the work and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States. It is also a call for equality. On September 30, 1859, at the Wisconsin State Agricultural Fair, rising politician Abraham Lincoln answered the elitist vision of a society dominated by a few wealthy men. “The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land, for himself; then labors on his own account for another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This, say its advocates, is free labor—the just and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way for all—gives hope to all, and energy and progress, and improvement of condition to all.” 

 

In Lincoln’s worldview, everyone shared a harmony of interest. Ultimately, what was good for the individual worker was good for everyone. There was no conflict between labor and capital; capital was simply “pre-exerted labor.” Everyone was part of the same harmonious system except for a few unproductive financiers and those who wasted their wealth on luxuries. In the same way, we are all part of God’s harmonious system. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

The Bible cannot only be applied to what was the social structure or understanding of sexuality in ancient times but also should be extended today to include everyone, “neither gay nor straight,” “neither healthy nor disabled,” and “neither black nor white.” We are all one in Christ, and He demands that we understand and strive for equality and acceptance for all.