Mini: Grace’s Unlikely Community
285 | “Receive Your Face”
Reclassify Strangers Through Shared Grace
We naturally drift toward people who look, think, and vote like us because echo chambers are comfortable. But the gospel does not find a community that fits; it creates a family out of people who do not. In this mini-episode, we play the “Galatians 3:28 Sledgehammer Game” to see how God's grace smashes through first-century status and identity walls. From the radical social reclassification of Philemon and Onesimus to the barrier-breaking dinner tables of Peter and Cornelius, we look at how grace functions as the ultimate social leveler. We also discuss historical insights from Pliny the Younger, an ancient prayer turned completely on its head, and what it practically means to be a “face receiver” in our modern, divided culture. Grab your sledgehammer and let's pull up a chair to grace's unlikely community!
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Grace doesn't just forgive isolated individuals — it reclassifies enemies and strangers into an uncommon family.
This Week's Challenge: Audit your relationships this week for any "scorecards" you’re keeping on someone and consciously "burn the list" by finding one way to receive from them as an equal contributor in Christ.
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Welcome and Big Idea
Bryan: Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks podcast. I'm Bryan Schiele
Ryan: I'm Ryan Joy
Bryan: And thanks so much everyone for tuning in. You know, we naturally drift toward people who look like us, think like us, maybe even vote like us.
We love the echo chamber communities because they're comfortable. But here in this mini episode, we're gonna find out that the gospel doesn't find a community that fits. It creates a family out of people who don't
Ryan: So today we're looking at the first century status and identity walls that grace turns into rubble, and why the most unlikely people in the world are exactly who Jesus wants at his table
Grace for All People
Bryan: All right, so Titus 2:11 says, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people." And I wanna focus here on these last two words here, all people. Although the word appeared here in this context is also very cool. Uh, it is the word that we get our word epiphany for, which is kinda cool, is made visible to us all, bringing salvation to all people.
So this is kinda scandalous, right? That, uh, salvation comes to all people.
Why We Resist Inclusion
Bryan: So why is it that we have such a hard time with this all people in this verse, do you think?
Ryan: Ooh. Uh, well, we just talked about Jonah in our last episode and how he, he was not too happy about, uh, grace being shown to his enemies whenever he had just received plenty of grace himself. And, um, y- you know, I mean, I think that it's, it's... There's this, the parable Jesus has about the, the guy who was the last to show up as a laborer that only worked for the last hour.
Um, you know, I, I think there's a lot of different categories and divisions we might wanna make. I mean, the, the New Testament is certainly full of barriers being broken down, and, you know, we may like to think of ourselves as beyond that, but we, we have our own kind of prejudices and, uh, barriers that we can construct, I think
Bryan: I, I feel like you're right on the money. Um, I don't, I don't tend to think of my friends as all being a homophilious group of people who are all very similar to each other, but, uh,
Ryan: quite a word.
Bryan: we all very much are. Like, I, I tend to gravitate towards the people who are similar to me, uh, just as a natural way. Um, and I don't think our churches are very much different than that sometimes.
Uh, you know, I think across America even, we probably gather into little groups of people in our churches that may look very similar to each other. And, uh, I think the call here is that w- if there is a wall of division, if there is something between us that could stand in our way, we need to let the grace of God appear and, uh, and bring salvation to all people and not hold it with a spirit of favoritism or, you know, preference or anything like that.
Early Church Table Fellowship
Bryan: I actually was reading a quote, uh, from Pliny the Younger from, like, around 112 AD, you know, early, early church kinda times, and he was talking about how there were some suspicious things going on amongst these, quote-unquote, "Christians" because they ate together across class lines. And, uh, just thought it was kind of interesting that, like, even in the earliest church, Titus 2:11 was being practiced, and, uh, there's another verse that we're gonna talk about here on this episode, Galatians 3:28, that's gonna serve as the basis for a little game that we're gonna play all about using our sledgehammer to knock down walls that we might build up.
Galatians 328 Sledgehammer Game
Bryan: Uh, this verse here, Galatians 3:28, "There 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." So let's, uh, let's bring up a couple different scenarios here, Ryan, and we can talk about how our modern-day sledgehammers can get used to break down some of these barriers we might put up between ourselves.
You ready to go?
Ryan: let's do it.
Bryan: All right, round one, buddy. Here we go. So
Ryan: All
Round 1 Status and Power
Bryan: wall is status and power. Um, and the examples here we're gonna talk about are Philemon, who was a wealthy legal owner of a slave, and Onesimus, who had run away as Philemon's slave. And how does grace break down this wall like a sledgehammer? Go
Ryan: Well, Paul places himself in between Philemon and Onesimus in this, um, real imitation of Christ as Christ has grabbed ahold of different groups and pulled them together, whether it's Jew and Gentile. W- these different groups we're talking about here. We're talking about slave and free, and he is saying, "Hey, if there's a, an, s- a debt owed, put it on me.
If there is..." He's doing the ministry of reconciliation and trying to bring these together and saying, "You can't just think of each other like you used to think of each other." And, um, so he's, he's challenging Philemon to accept Onesimus, but Onesimus was gonna need some courage and some faith to go back, and it's possible that he is even reading this letter to Philemon, and, uh, so,
There's a book, think it's Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright, and he starts with, um, Philemon, and he basically says, "If this was the only book, this one chapter, this is the only thing we had of our New Testament, it would tell us something revolutionary had happened, and it was all centered in this Christ."
Bryan: That's so powerful. Yeah.
Philemon Onesimus Today
Bryan: I, I do feel like Philemon's example here is maybe one of the most powerful examples of the change that happens in a community, and that's really what this little mini episode is focused on. Like, we can talk about grace, and we can spiritualize these things, and we can think about them in, like, these re- very, you know, mystical kinds of ways.
But, like, I think the point is that not only does grace change me, but it changes me to then become an arm into the lives of other people and to break down the kinds of barriers. And as Paul is, like, just championing a new community of people, he is, he is trying to bring this church together in the most unified way possible.
He has, like you said, has to stand in the gap between two people and deal with real-life, actual day-to-day problems, and this is not, like, a theoretical thing that he's dealing with. This is, like, on-the-ground kind of work. And imagine what is gonna happen for a master to have his slave at his table with him, and to share a meal, and to share the Lord's supper together, and to treat him in this way, and this verse in Philemon 16, "You are no longer a slave, but as a dear brother."
Like, the, the change in his status that Onesimus is going to have is going to mean so much between their relationship. And I just think, like, for today, we don't have clear and present, like, slavery like they did at this time, and even the slavery back then that he's talking about is different than maybe the one that we knew in our own most recent past.
But at, at the very least, we have these, like, asymmetric relationships between us where there's, like, power imbalances and there's, like, you have the authority and I don't, or you have the money and I don't, or whatever, like your, your boss and your employees and things like that. I think when we start to see that there are people in our communities, in our churches who they may not be the scholar, they may not be the one who knows everything, but they still bring so much to the table, I just feel like we need to take something here about status and power from this story and make it, like, real in our day-to-day relationships today
Ryan: Yeah, there's a word, uh, social capital that I've heard used to describe like, you know, there are just certain people, uh, maybe they're a doctor or a lawyer, uh, maybe they have wealth. Um, you know, they drive the nicer car in. When we go over to their house, it's like we can't even imagine. We could fit five of our houses into their house, and it's like, "Wow, they are somebody,"
you know, physical attractiveness, in intelligence, in accomplishment.
it doesn't matter, and that is what this, what Galatians 3 is about. But then what this leveling that's at the heart of the Book of Romans, the Book of Corinthians, the Book of you know, like so many of the books of the Bible are trying to bring a unity where these walls, where, where these walls have not been sledgehammered, to use your, your game here
Bryan: Yeah. I think that's good. Um, so let's move on to our second round here.
Round 2 Jew and Gentile
Bryan: The, the second round here is about Peter and Cornelius, and this addresses another facet of this verse in Galatians 3:28, where Peter is a devout Jew. Cornelius is a Roman pagan outsider. He's a Gentile. And so, uh, here in this conversation, let's break down the wall between Jew and Gentile.
How, how does this manifest in our culture today? Probably not between Jews and Gentiles, but maybe, like, heritage or culture or, you know, something like Shibboleth or... I'm, I'm thinking in that, in that realm
Ryan: Yeah. Okay. So just bring it to the practical. I, I would, I would say, I mean, there is a, an insider, are you one of us kind of thing that can happen. You, you, you're shibboleth in, you know, um, maybe the, the people you know, the college you went to, the are you using the same terminology I use that tells you you're in our tribe?
And, you know, how much do you know? You know, if you're newly converted and you're saying all kinds of things and talking about shows we would never watch and,
everybody at the dinner table is now uncomfortable because you've shown yourself to be an outsider rather than an insider. And so how do we make the space and the grace to, as we're-- I mean, maybe those are correct things that we should be i- as we're making them, as we're training them in the discipling of, of Jesus, in the, in the way of Jesus, that we, we need to teach, but we also need patience and grace.
And maybe a lot of those aren't really what should be the marker of our, of the community of faith. Uh, like, like Peter ran into in, in, uh, in Galatians 2, the chapter before this, which seems to be the heart of the, the book of Galatians,and Peter didn't wanna sit and eat with, with these other people who maybe ate non-kosher food, or they, um, weren't circumcised or whatever.
And so we need to let the mark of the community be, is this person a servant of Christ? Are they-- Have they placed their trust, their confidence, their loyalty, their, their obedience? You know, they were, as Galatians 3 says, ri- the verse right before our verse says, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."
And then, you know, and right before that, "Sons of God through faith," verse 29, "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's heir, offspring, heirs according to the promise." So at the heart of this whole thing is bringing together, at that time, the biggest issue of the day, Jews associating with Gentiles
Bryan: Yeah. I think that's, I mean, there's so many different walls of dividing line here, like with just culture and what we're traditionally used to and things like that, so I think you nailed a few of those. U
Face Receiver No Partiality
Bryan: m, you know, I was thinking here from Acts 10 how Peter is told to not call any person common or, you know, what, what God has called clean, don't call unclean.
And he says later on there in verse 34, "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality." And just that idea of partiality, um, is such a it's like the, the Greek term there is actually, uh, face receiver,
Ryan: Yes
Bryan: always thought was really fun, is like, I'm gonna receive your face. Um, you know, I'm not gonna show you partiality.
It's, it's you are who you are. And I think there is a special kind of skill to being able to welcome strangers and welcome people who aren't like you, and that is a skill that I just wanna constantly get better at. Um, you know, especially as I think about what a difficult job it absolutely would have been for Peter, a Jew, to be associating with this pagan outsider like Cornelius.
I mean, and Cornelius had a lot going for him, right? He was a, he was a religious person. Like, he was very devout. He was, you know, so he, he had a lot of stuff going on for him. But, like, even Peter just struggled with that, like you talk about in Galatians 2. And I know that is probably one of the, the more challenging things for me to remember is, like, don't retreat, don't pull back, don't be like so, you know, turned away by somebody not using the same terminology or not making me feel comfortable.
Like, be a face receiver. Like, be the person who's, like, you know, welcoming and, and I think that's something that I can always grow in, uh, especially as I've received that welcome in God's grace too.
Ryan: Yeah, that and, the, the partiality word there, it speaks to you're looking at their appearance, right? At their face, at their, at, at the outside. You know, this is, trying to learn to see like God, who doesn't look on the outer appearance. You know, we go back to David in 1 Samuel 16, but He looks on the heart, and He sees who is this person really.
Bryan: Okay, so the last one.
Round 3 Male and Female
Bryan: If we're gonna make this thing a mini, we gotta make it fast, so round three here. Uh, we're gonna break down the wall, the dividing wall between male and female here in Galatians 3:28, as Paul is doing there. So let's look, of course, at Aquila and Priscilla, um, and the, and the partnership that they wound up having.
How does God's grace build such a, a connection between Aquila and Priscilla, where the culture around them would've been separating them very clearly from each other and keeping them in very different roles?
Ryan: It's so cool how they're always mentioned together. They are... The names are flip-flopped back and forth. It's not Priscilla always in front. It's not Aquila always in front. And, and that it just shows you this partnership that they have, this equality of honor and appreciation that they have. there was this giant gap in not just acknowledging the difference, male and female are real, this is in God's ordered design, but in the opportunity to be a disciple in the status, in the ability to s- sit at the table and be part of the discussion and part of the faith community.
Aquila and Priscilla are hosting the church in their house. And, you know, so, so there is this, uh, this change in dynamic that's happening there.
Um, again, n- not distinguishing, as our culture so desperately wants to do, not ruling out the existence of, of male and female as an important distinction, but making it no longer a status wall in the community of God
Bryan: Yeah. Uh, well, let me just say it this way, right? Like, the Jew and Gentile were still Jew and Gentile, like heritage-wise, you know, even though he's
Ryan: Philemon and Onesimus
Bryan: and, and, you know, you, you get the slave and free, and in Philemon and Onesimus, they were still slave and free. And so, you know, it's not that, that male and female weren't...
So again, we're adding a lot of asterisks on the c- on this conversation. But I think it's, it's helpful, right? Because this is a, a, a topic of our day. But I do really just appreciate the fact that when somebody was going to go and teach Apollos, it was not Aquila by himself. And in fact, in that case, Priscilla was mentioned first in the ordering of the, of the two of their names, and I think that's intentional.
I think it's intentional that she had something to bring to the table. And in the community of the Lord's people, women have something to bring to the table, and men have something to bring to the table, and slaves have something to bring to the table. Like, uh, in all of these things, Christ died for everyone, and so we all have something to, to honor him with in our lives.
Reversing the Old Prayer
Bryan: And so when we think about verses like this, Scott McKnight has this quote where he calls back to the, to Sefta, in this Jewish prayer that was offered. He says this, "People used to pray this way in the Jewish culture of the day.
Blessed be God that he did not make me a Gentile. Blessed be God that he did not make me ignorant or a slave. Blessed be God that he did not make me a woman." And, like, that, many people believe that what Paul is saying here is completely reversing that prayer, and this sounds like the, the Pharisee's prayer, as Jesus would talk about the Pharisee and the, uh, the tax collector.
You know, thank you that I'm not like this person. Um, and I think the whole idea here that Paul is getting to is, like, just break down the barriers between yourself, because we are all one in Christ. W- salvation has come to all, as we talked about in, in Titus chapter 2 verse 11.
Ephesians Dividing Wall Down
Bryan: And then with this one last verse here in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 14, Paul says, "For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility."
And then he goes on to talk there about, you know, abolishing the commandments. And, uh, the hostility that we would face between us and God, but also the hostility that we would face between each other has been taken care of in Christ and in his death. So just the opportunity to kind of take a second here and maybe think about how we break down these walls in our modern day is, uh, is maybe a helpful way to spend our time in this little mini episode.
Ryan: Yeah, and what, what that quote from the Cefta sh- shows is, one, these are the three great cultural status identity barriers in that culture, and two, the absolute... I mean, they think that they are doing some good thing in this prayer by, by appreciating that God did not make them like those people. And so the, the uppitiness of which a Jewish free man is looking on all of these other people and saying, "Well, man, I c- I'm not like them."
Grace Levels Every Category
Ryan: It's, it's the Pharisee's prayerAnd it helps us to see, you called this episode Grace's Unlikely Community, and I think it, it helps us to understand how grace is the leveler. Grace is the thing that changes it because you imagine Paul going around from town to town preaching the gospel, and as he preaches, certain people respond to the gospel and it just changes them, and other people don't.
And so he's baptizing these people who are slaves, and he's baptizing poor people, and he's baptizing Jews, and he's baptizing Gentiles, and, and there are these awful people who are idolaters. And there are, uh, all these different people. He's also laying hands on s- on a lot of these people, and the Holy Spirit is giving them miraculous gifts, revelatory gifts.
They become prophets or, or people who could heal or other things. And he's finding this happens to slaves, this happens to females and males and Jews and Gentiles. It happens to everybody. I mean, not to everybody, but to all of these different categories, any who will come to Christ in faith. And then he thinks about himself as this person who was the worst of sinners, and he realizes we all get to come to God's table, to use your, your metaphor from the other day.
Uh, h- we all get to receive God's grace, not by any class category, not by any worth, any work, anything that we have done that makes us some special person that deserves it. His favor is shown on those who turn to Christ and follow Him, period.
Bryan: I love it.
Challenge and Wrap Up
Bryan: So yeah, I mean, the whole idea here in this episode is just to really focus on the fact that grace isn't just for a select group of people, and, uh, it really does have the ability to reclassify people into a new community that don't keep score against each other and don't try to, you know, fight with each other in terms of status, 'cause we all realize not a single one of us has earned our spot at this table.
And so to build these kinds of communities today, I think, is one of the, the most powerful ways we can use and extend grace that we've been shown to other people, and be welcoming and friendly, and just to work on our own reactions sometimes, and get better at using the sledgehammer of breaking down these silly walls that stand between us
Ryan: I love it. Bring the sledgehammer, that's the challenge for the week, but in a, you know, productive way.
Bryan: A productive sledgehammer to your, uh, struggling relationships maybe this week. All right, everyone. Thanks so much for tuning into the Bible Geeks podcast. You can find us on our website, biblegeeks.fm. Find show notes for this episode in your podcast player or there on our website as well. And until the next episode, everyone, may the Lord bless you and keep you
Ryan: Hello