{"id":1090,"date":"2026-06-29T10:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/a-wall-is-not-a-building\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T11:17:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:17:33","slug":"a-wall-is-not-a-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/a-wall-is-not-a-building\/","title":{"rendered":"A wall is not a building"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is natural for us, human beings, to build walls. We take shelter behind them from the hardships of nature, we surround our cities and protect national borders with them. Walls have proven to be an extremely useful invention over the centuries, so much so that it is easy to forget that the first walls were built by Cain (Gen 4:17). At the same time, readers of the Bible know well that walls alone\u2014however solid they are\u2014do not provide real protection; they can be torn down, and the city they defend can be conquered and destroyed. And this is true not only of physically constructed walls, but of those inner dividing walls by which we seek to protect our identity. <\/p>\n\n

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\u201cTherefore, remember that formerly\u202fyou who are Gentiles by birth and called \u2018uncircumcised\u2019 by those who call themselves \u2018the circumcision\u2019 (which is done in the body by human hands)\u2014\u202fremember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners\u202fto the covenants of the promise,\u202fwithout hope\u202fand without God in the world.\u202fBut now in Christ Jesus you who once\u202fwere far away have been brought near\u202fby the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace,\u202fwho has made the two groups one\u202fand has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh\u202fthe law with its commands and regulations. <\/sup>His purpose was to create in himself one\u202fnew humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross,\u202fby which he put to death their hostility. <\/sup>He came and preached peace\u202fto you who were far away and peace to those who were near. <\/sup>For through him we both have access\u202fto the Father\u202fby one Spirit.\u202fConsequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers,\u202fbut fellow citizens\u202fwith God\u2019s people and also members of his household,\u202fbuilt\u202fon the foundation\u202fof the apostles and prophets,\u202fwith Christ Jesus himself\u202fas the chief cornerstone. <\/sup>In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple\u202fin the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.\u201d (Eph 2:11\u201322; NIV) <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Discussing an ancient example of hostility in Christ\u2019s congregation thousands of years ago, the Letter to the Ephesians also speaks of walls and buildings. For today\u2019s Bible-readers the conflict between Jews and Gentiles\u2014this tension about being or not being circumcised\u2014seems distant and of little relevance. Yet these groupings are interchangeable: they can just as easily be replaced by liberals and fundamentalists, the weak and the strong, the timid and the confident. What matters, therefore, is not the labels we attach to conflicting groups, but how we respond to the presence of those within our communities who hold different views on certain questions. Maybe \u2013 not overstretching the elasticity of the text \u2013 they have different views on how to connect to the community surrounding us, in more expansive terms, to the world in which we live. <\/p>\n\n

Jews and Gentiles<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

The letter to the Ephesians was not written by Paul. It belongs to the Deutero-Pauline Letters, to use a theological term. What does this mean? It certainly does not imply a value judgement, as if the text was less important or less authoritative than any other New Testament writing. Nor does it justify setting its teaching against that of the apostle\u2019s undisputed letters. Its only purpose is to situate the text within its own historical context in order to understand its message more precisely. <\/p>\n\n

Paul\u2019s mission was often attacked because he reached out to the Gentiles with the gospel of Jesus, insisting that Gentiles can belong to Christ in their own right. Most of the attacks came from Jews who also confessed Christ, but they believed that the Gentiles first had to convert to Judaism before they could become followers of Jesus. <\/p>\n\n

This conflict is central in the Letter to the Galatians, where Paul rebukes the congregation for imposing laws on Gentile Christians which had failed to bring even the Jews to salvation. He accuses them of endangering the freedom in Christ, and the salvation through grace apart from the law.[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n

Only faith in Christ has the power to save\u2014this was Luther\u2019s great insight which became the founding principle of the Reformation. <\/p>\n\n

However, when we read the Letter to the Ephesians, we see a very different picture; here it is not the Gentiles who need protection from the Jews, but the other way around. The writer addresses the letter to Gentile Christians. He wants them to understand that hostility is not an option, for Christ has torn down the dividing barriers. As the Gentiles constitute the majority of the congregation, we can assume that the letter was written a couple of decades later. Another indication of this is that the community is described as built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The apostles appear as great figures of the past, while prophets are the teachers of the next generation. The author of the letter, who must have been part of the school founded by Paul, adapts the apostle\u2019s teachings to this new situation; he warns the community not to repeat the mistake the Jews made earlier. Hostility based on legalism inevitably carries the danger of excluding certain people from salvation. Some may even be denied citizenship. According to the letter\u2019s argument, we cannot treat anyone as stranger or foreigner in the community because all are fellow citizens. <\/p>\n\n

After all, what makes someone a foreigner or a stranger? It is the law\u2014the law with its commandments and ordinances\u2014that provide the basis for hostility, even though we may look to it for protection. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n

Past and Present<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

To drive his point home, the author reminds his Gentile readers that they were once separated from Christ and excluded from Israel because of the law. More precisely, they could not belong to Christ, as Gentiles could only be foreigners and strangers in Israel. But now, you, my dear readers who were once far away\u2014writes the author, who was probably a Jewish Christian\u2014, have been brought near. You have become part of Israel through the blood of Christ. By reconciling the two peoples, the Jew and the Gentile, his death and resurrection have enabled them to walk the same path together. This was made possible only because he destroyed the dividing barrier, that is, hostility itsef. To accomplish this, he abolished the law that had provided the foundation for hostility. The text leaves no doubt about the author\u2019s meaning; for he explicitly speaks of \u201cthe law with its commands and regulations\u201d (Eph 2:15). Therefore, the work of Christ not only abolishes the consequence\u2014hostility\u2014but everything that makes it possible. He destroys not only the superstructure of hostility between people \u2013 which can be rebuilt \u2013 but the commandments and decrees of the law itself, on which it rests. He brings reconciliation not through laws,[2]<\/a><\/sup> but by becoming the new foundation of this peace: \u201che himself is our peace\u201d (Eph 2:14). And he has brought peace not only among human beings, but he reconciled humanity with God, embracing all people regardless of being far from Israel or near, of being circumcised or Gentile. In the letter to the Ephesians, the church is where salvation takes place, this is where believers receive the gift of reconciliation. <\/p>\n\n

Humans have always tended to divide people into two categories: \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem.\u201d In Judaism this distinction took the form of \u201cus: Jews\u201d and \u201cthem: Gentiles.\u201d Gentiles, in turn, divided humanity into the categories of \u201cus: civilized\u201d, \u201cthem: barbarian.\u201d After the destruction of the Temple (70 CE), Judaism, as a response to the great trauma, chose a path in which\u2014out of a desire to protect the Torah and Jewish identity\u2014it clung even more strongly to the Law and its commandments. Later, the rabbis came to see it as necessary to protect these commandments with an additional \u201cfence\u201d of further regulations.[3]<\/a><\/sup> In other words, they did exactly what the author of the letter warns against. He bids his readers not to make this mistake, but to abandon this well-established, reassuring, and perhaps temporarily effective practice of wall-building. In the earliest period, it seems that this was indeed successfully accomplished. <\/p>\n\n

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\u201cThe multinational and -cultural community, which slowly integrated the barbarians, was really formed into one nation by Christian faith. A third clan, a tercium genus<\/em> appeared.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Wall and Temple<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

Christianity cuts itself from its own roots if it chooses to build the wall of hostility, since this will inevitably be founded upon commandments and regulations \u2013 in other words, we recreate that which arises from human nature, yet stands in complete opposition to the reconciliation grounded in the cross. This is what the Letter to the Ephesians seeks to guard us against. Do not repeat the mistake made by the first generation of Jewish Christians, and then throughout history by many countries and communities who called themselves Christians. <\/p>\n\n

If we can realize and accept that we are not foreigners and strangers but the fellow-citizens with the saints and God\u2019s household, we can become part of a new process which is not initiated by us but happens to us. This process is not based on the Law but on the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets with Christ himself as the cornerstone, who guarantees its harmonious fitting together. According to some scholars, the word translated here as \u201ccornerstone\u201d can also mean keystone, as in the top stone of an arch, however, this meaning fits less well with the argument of the letter. After all, the central point is that hostility is grounded in the Law, which Christ has abolished by bringing peace and creating in himself a new humanity, the people belonging to Christ. Note that reconciliation is not grounded in humanity but in Christ himself. The law was unable to bring reconciliation, instead, it generated hostility. Another foundation was therefore necessary, which was laid down by the apostles and the prophets \u2013 but they could not have succeeded unless the cornerstone had already been given, which sets the direction, and guarantees stability. This foundation is not optional, but the only possibility (cf. 1Cor 3:10\u201315),[5]<\/a><\/sup> since only in this way can stable walls be built. <\/p>\n\n

But then do we have to build walls after all? Isn\u2019t the author contradicting himself here? Actually, no, as there is a crucial difference. Here it is we ourselves who are being built: \u201cand in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit\u201d (Eph 2:22; NIV). We are the bricks in this construction. This also explains the otherwise striking claim that this building\u2014the holy temple\u2014is capable of growing. <\/p>\n\n

In this temple, then, there is no justification for hostility as a dividing wall, since the identity of the church\u2019s members is not founded on the Law but defined by belonging to Christ. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n

Thus, the laws that once justified hostility also loses its force, and there is no need for the defence lines that commandments might erect around us. Every regulation intended to protect our sovereignty ultimately testifies to the absence\u2014or at best the fragility\u2014of what it seeks to defend. Indeed, hostility is a sign of fear or lack of trust in one\u2019s own faith and authenticity. This cannot be corrected by law. Hostility and separation are signs of a weakened identity. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cA responsible life is not identical with the ethics of detached purity. It is fundamentally participation in the reality to which we belong, the reality we take upon ourselves before Christ.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n

Building barriers of hostility is not identical with building the walls of the temple. Let us acknowledge that the dividing barrier of hostility offers only us a false sense of security. It is a futile effort and a waste of time. We are not to build the dividing walls of hostility, but rely peacefully on the Spirit, through whom we are being built into the dwelling place of God. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are naturally inclined to divide humanity into two categories: \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem,\u201d and \u201cthey\u201d\u2014the other group\u2014are perceived as a threat to \u201cus.\u201d For this reason, people build not only physical walls but also invisible barriers by which they seek to protect their identity. Referring to the conflict between Jewish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,55],"tags":[],"article_keyword":[244,242,237,236,243,238,241,240,239],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-essay","category-featured","article_keyword-christian-identity","article_keyword-church","article_keyword-dividing-wall","article_keyword-ephesians","article_keyword-holy-spirit","article_keyword-hostility","article_keyword-jewish-christians-and-gentile-christians","article_keyword-legalism","article_keyword-reconciliation","author_publications-szerzo-1079","author_translations-fordito-710"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1091,"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions\/1091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"article_keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thema21.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_keyword?post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}