Different Together in Jesus 在耶稣里合一

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Dexu Xia

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Aug 18, 2023, 1:58:32 AM8/18/23

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There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free. Galatians 3:28

Business analyst Francis Evans once studied 125 insurance salesmen to find out what made them successful. Surprisingly, competence wasn’t the key factor. Instead, Evans found customers were more likely to buy from salesmen with the same politics, education, and even height as them. Scholars call this homophily: the tendency to prefer people like us.

Homophily is at work in other areas of life too, with us tending to marry and befriend people similar to us. While natural, homophily can be destructive when left unchecked. When we only prefer “our kind” of people, society can fracture along racial, political, and economic lines.

In the first century, Jews stuck with Jews, Greeks with Greeks, and rich and poor never mingled. And yet, in Romans 16:1–16, Paul could describe the church in Rome as including Priscilla and Aquila (Jewish), Epenetus (Greek), Phoebe (a “benefactor of many,” so probably wealthy), and Philologus (a name common for slaves). What had brought such different people together? Jesus—in whom there’s “neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free” (Galatians 3:28).

It’s natural to want to live, work, and go to church with people like us. Jesus pushes us beyond that. In a world fracturing along various lines, He’s making us a people who are different together—united in Him as one family.

By: Sheridan Voysey

How can you actively reach out to people who are different from you? What could you do this week to bridge ethnic or economic divides?

Jesus, I praise You for working to bring our fractured world together.

并不分犹太人、希腊人、自主的、为奴的。—加拉太书3章28节

商业分析师法兰西斯·埃文斯（Francis Evans）曾研究125位保险业务员，想找出他们成功的原因。结果令人惊讶，能力并非最重要的因素。相反地，他发现客户常会向有相同政治立场、教育背景，甚至身高相近的业务员购买保险。学者称之为同质偏好，即人会倾向于喜欢与自己相似的人。

同质偏好也会出现在生活其他方面，例如我们倾向与自己相近的人结婚或交朋友。虽然这很自然，但若过度放任这种偏好，也可能带来破坏。当我们都只喜欢“同类人”，就可能因种族、政治或经济因素而造成社会分裂。

在公元1世纪，犹太人只跟犹太人一起，希腊人只跟希腊人交往，富人与穷人壁垒分明。但在罗马书16章1-16节，保罗却提到罗马教会中的百基拉和亚居拉（犹太人）、以拜尼土（希腊人）、非比（“帮助许多人”，可能很富有）和非罗罗古（常见的奴隶名字）。这群如此迥异的人为何能聚在一起？答案是耶稣，在祂里面“并不分犹太人、希腊人、自主的、为奴的”（加拉太书3章28节）。

我们自然都会想和自己相似的人一起生活、工作、上教堂，但耶稣却鼓励我们超越同质偏好。在这因各种因素而分裂的世界里，祂使我们这群不同的人联成一体，在祂里面成为一家人。

作者： 霍薛顿

你如何积极接触那些与你不同的人？
你要如何融合不同族群、不同经济条件的人？在基督里，上帝将我们招聚在一起。