Acts 17:26

God made blood the life sustaining force coursing through the bodies of all animal life.  Without it, nothing can live and without its movement through the body, death is certain. Shortly after the creation Cain slew Abel, spilling his blood on the ground, depriving him of the fluid within his body needed to sustain his life. Since that time, strife has been common place among the peoples of the earth.  The conflicts have been and continue to be personal in nature as well as public, seen in the wars between nations. The issues have been from minor offenses to larger issues, such as the quest for more territory when a nation seeks to expand its dominance over others. The one word that describes the desire of the human condition in relation to others is the word in the sentence above, dominance.  Individuals and groups want to be dominant over someone.

When Paul spoke to the men on Mars Hill, he was speaking in one respect about dominance, as in one group or person not being any better than another in the eyes of God. He made all humanity as it is today from the progeny of Adam and Eve, with the continuance of it through the eight in the family of Noah and who were saved in the ark from the flood. Paul said the God determined the time of living spoken of in Hebrews 9:27: And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: and then he also gave to man the limits or bounds of his habitation. The one duty of man as Paul said was to seek after the Lord for in him we have our very being.  It is true as the poet said, “We are his offspring.”

With the one blood coming from Adam and Eve in our veins all men are related physically in some way, and that is the message that Paul gave that day on Mars Hill. In that day the two divisions were Jew and Gentile, with a clear distinction made between men and women due to cultural and societal differences among the two groups. Paul spoke the gospel message of Jesus Christ, which when obeyed, unites all into the one body that God recognizes, the community of believers known as the church. He reinforced that message in Galatians 3:26-29: For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

In the Galatians church were Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free, but Paul said those distinctions were now gone because they all had put on Christ in baptism. By faith in Christ, they had become children of God and were now one with no distinctions between them spiritually. They were equal in God’s sight regardless of who they were or their station in life.  One wasn’t any better than another and therefore there was to be no dominance over another in that regard. They in effect had sought after God and found him in Jesus Christ, having done what Paul told the men on Mars Hill that day that they should seek the Lord. That made them equal.

© 11-12-2002 DEC

Revised 09-12-2008

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