putting asunder what God has joined together

Tuesday April 10th, Acts 10: 34 Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. The early church got the message. God does not show favoritism. It didn’t take long for the church to move from being church to being “the church.” That is when the walls started to go up. You can see it in some of the later pastoral letters of Timothy and Titus, rules about who is in and who is out. Over the centuries we have gone back and forth from being inclusive to being exclusive. For the most part, even the inclusive times tend to be a bit exclusive. It is always good to keep an eye on the prize, and the prize is the all inclusiveness of God. Our biggest sin is that we are always putting asunder what God has joined together (thanks to Wm Sloane Coffin for that one).