In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul, a Jewish Christian and apostle, is writing to a really mixed audience. The new, fledgling Christian church is trying to bring together two very different groups: a Law-abiding group, who enjoyed a good Jewish upbringing, with the wilder and more free-wheeling former Gentiles. The Jewish Christians are fairly horrified at the background and behavior of the Gentile Christians: “Have they no idea of the Law, of the way to behave?” The Jewish Christians are still thinking of these brothers and sisters in Christ as no better than strangers or aliens. And yet, they are all living in the church together.
Paul uses the image of a house divided, with residents putting up dividing walls to keep each other separate. You can imagine the tension and bad atmosphere in such a church, in such a home. In Matthew 12:25, Jesus spoke of a house divided as not being able to stand: “He said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.’” On June 16, 1858, President Lincoln used the language of a house divided in speaking of tensions as they existed before the Civil War: “‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half-slave and half-free.” The image of a house divided echoes throughout history.
What does Paul say is Jesus’s solution to the house divided? In verse 14, Paul writes, “For He is our peace; in His flesh He has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.” Jesus became peace to the early church, breaking down divisions and distrust between them. And Jesus is still breaking down walls, building unity even between enemies. Jesus can make a wounded church, a wounded city and nation and world whole again. And in such a place, God is pleased to dwell with us, proclaiming peace to all people.