There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Have you ever felt you were treated less than equal because of not having the proper upbringing up, schooling, appearance, or speech? Society has a way of separating us into different groups. To be accepted in today's society, you have to have all the right credentials.
I was born in South Texas. I remember going into a department store when I was young where there were two drinking fountains, one marked for whites only and the other marked for colored only. The restrooms were the same way. I didn't understand it at that time. Like everybody else, I just lived with it. I never met a black person until the age of eleven and we lived in different parts of town.
I remember one particular incident to this day. I was walking with some friends in downtown Houston. We were walking on the sidewalk when this black person came around the corner. We were about ready to move out of the way, when he stepped off the sidewalk and into the street to avoid us. I learned later that he was considered a lower class citizen and he was expected to make a way for us.
In 1955, I received an invitation from my older brother to visit him in California. He had lived in California since his discharge from the Air Force after serving in Korea. My brother sent me a bus ticket so I could travel from Houston, Texas to Los Angeles, California. As the bus made its way to California, it made several stops.
In Arizona I was surprised to see that a black person got on board, and instead of going to the back of the bus, which is what I was accustomed to, he sat next to me. I didn't know how to act. I had never been close to a black man before. He broke the ice and started to tell me he was going home, and that he was from Oakland, California. I got to know him, and that changed my whole outlook on black people. I know now what is meant by the old expression "walk a mile in my shoes and you will know me" I really enjoyed his company and our conversation made the long trip easier to bear.
We are all created equal in the eyes of God. He doesn't see any color or achievements that would get us closer to Him. Jesus paid the price for us to be all one family with God our Father. We all start at the same place when we enter the Kingdom of God.
Most everybody has heard about or even played the game Monopoly. In the start of the game each player is given the same amount of money. The object of the game is to buy as much property as possible with the money given and to bankrupt your opponent by requiring them to pay rent when they land on your properties. You get rich quick, especially if you have houses and hotels on them. It's the same when we start out in life. In the movie Forrest Gump, he makes a statement “life is like a box of candy you never know what you going to get” Basically, that is "life is what you make of it". We can excel in education and go forward, or we can just let life go by mindlessly.
Jesus used parables to teach his listeners about the Kingdom of God. What is a parable? A parable is a story that conveys a moral truth. Parables tell a story, not about something recurrent in real life, but about a one-time event which is fictitious. They derive their persuasiveness from being told in a simple, vivid, and fresh way which engages the hearer.
In the parable of the worker in the vineyard for example, this parable basically means there is no seniority with God and that we are all equal. (Matthew 20: 1-16) The master of the field hired some day laborers in the morning and set the amount of pay. In the middle of the afternoon he went out and hired new labors and offered to pay them the same as the ones who were hired earlier. In the latter part of the afternoon, he went out to hire some more laborers to work in his field. That evening he paid off his workers and he paid them all the same. The morning’s laborers were upset because the late workers received the same amount of money as they did.The laborers who worked all day complained to the master because he paid the afternoon laborers the same wage. And they had worked all day. It doesn’t matter at what age we became Christians, we are all going to be rewarded equally according to our faithfulness.
Many Christians have the attitude "People in my church should do things my way because I've been here longer." No person should feel "there's no point in becoming a Christian now. I've lived such a terrible life that even if I became a Christian, I would get little or no reward." God doesn't care how long you didn't follow Him. His care is when your life on earth ends, were you a follower of Christ or not?
We are all in the same position in Christ. We made the choice to follow Christ because God allows us the freedom to choose. We were not forced to serve God, so why do we act as if we are? God is our master because we chose to be slaves to him. The position we hold in the
church should not matter; the only thing we should be worried about is are we serving God to the best of our potential. If you were 10 years old or 80 years old when you accepted Christ as your Savior, you are only at the beginning, because you were reborn in the spirit, you
received a new birth.
Give no thought of what time you have left in your lives to serve Christ. Only God knows that. Just do what God has for you to do. The reward is eternal life with our Master. Take the ants, for example. They live in a colony and each has a single purpose in life and that is to serve the colony. They have worker ants and army ants and ants that serve the queen. They don't look at their co-workers to see who is working harder or who is working slowly, they just perform their duty to the best of their ability.
No matter what position we hold, it leads to the same reward: eternal life with God. We are not like the ants who don't have a free will to make decisions. Remember that we are all equal in the eyes of God, and do not concern yourself with what others are doing or not doing. Just continue to serve God in the area He has selected for you.
Romans 2:11 (NKJV)
For there is no partiality with God.
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