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Mahatma Gandhi was a Hindu who often quoted the Sermon on the Mount, but when asked why he never became a follower of Jesus, he said, “I do not reject your Christ. I love your Christ. But many of you Christians are so unlike him.” He tells how as a young man he tried to worship at a church in South Africa. He was barred and told there was no room for people like him at that church. He decided then he would never become a Christian. While churches in America have made some progress in accepting people irrespective of ethnicity, gender, and class, many still struggle with this issue—often in subtle ways. Jesus and His apostles stressed the truth that Christ’s body, the church, is one—unified. In one text, the Apostle Paul warned believers in Galatia about the danger of false teachers leading them astray. He first explained how the coming of Christ put an end to gaining God’s favor by keeping the Law and ritual traditions. Then he said this in Galatians 3: “You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Since our Lord has created oneness among His followers by dying and rising again, it is our privilege and duty to act like it.
