平等

在伊甸园受诅咒之前，男人（亚当）和女人（夏娃）是平等的。上帝用亚当的肋骨创造了夏娃。祂本可以用亚当的头骨或脚骨创造夏娃，但祂没有那样做。因为用头骨或脚骨会表明女性不是优于男性就是劣于男性。这种不平等不能反映出上帝的形象，既爱的形象。三一真神作为平等的伙伴在完美的和谐中一起工作，分别担负不同的角色。亚当和夏娃也当如此。上帝在人类犯罪后所宣布的咒诅不是邪恶的，而是良善的。毋庸置疑，咒诅会使人身处困境，–但这种困境会帮我们学会其中的属灵功课，从而受益。

歧视

自堕落后，人类社会不仅产生了性别上的辖制，还进一步产生了一系列不幸的种族和阶级歧视。很不幸，贪婪、剥削、腐败和压迫普遍地充斥着这个堕落的世界，而非特例。这绝不是上帝愿意看到的景象。祂试图不断地吸引人们就近祂并反照出祂的形象，甚至是主动去寻找他们。在古以色列时期，尽管上帝为王，但当时的社会并不完美。然而它仍然有可能是当时最好的社会，它的爱和恩典之原则是四围列邦未曾听闻的。上帝呼召人们通过洁净、圣洁、良善和爱来反映祂的形象和荣耀。祂的灵在个人和团体文化中产生影响。但是在任何一种文化中工作，即使是上帝（因为尊重人类的自由意志）都难免会受到局限，难免因人类的缺陷受到限制。这就是为什么上帝不断呼召我们更清晰地彰显出祂的品格和形象；我们越是努力，就越能使他人和我们的社会受益。

平权法案

当以色列国降伏于上帝的权威时，祂为他们制定了各种基于性别、阶级和种族的律法，以保护易受歧视的群体。这些律法在大多数其他的文化和社会中并不存在。

顾念寄居的或外邦人：利未记19:33；申命记10:18,19

顾念穷人：申命记15:7,8；约伯记29:12

顾念女性：出埃及记22:22；27:19；民数记36:6

顾念孤儿寡妇：以赛亚书1:17；申命记10:18

奴隶的权利：出埃及记20:8-11

在禧年释放奴隶：利未记25:13

上帝希望以色列是一个平等和满有恩典的国度。

祂希望它是一个有公义和慈爱的国度。

祂希望把它建立成一个高举正义的国度。

祂希望它成为全世界的榜样。

公义和慈爱

随着耶稣的降临，上帝带给人类更崇高的道德标准。耶稣接触并感动了各式各样的人–外邦人、撒玛利亚人、血漏的妇人、外邦的妇女、瞎眼的人、有残疾的人–那些通常被社会视为不洁的人。在上述的各个场景中，耶稣把这些被社会遗弃的人，看为非常有价值的人。

虽然12使徒中没有一位女性，但耶稣的确花费很多时间向女性群体传讲福音，且祂的信徒中不乏女性。令人印象深刻的是，基督在复活之后最先是向女性显现的。祂打破了风俗与女性说话、交往，教导她们，与她们相处（见路加福音10:38-42；约翰福音4章）。基督教导我们服侍他人、照顾我们当中受压迫和被边缘化的人–这是基督徒尤其应该做的事（马太福音23:23）。祂的信徒回应了这一呼召，并持续地应用和分享这一原则。所有的人都被呼召去甘心地服侍那些弱势群体……这才是真正的宗教（雅各书1:27）。宗教不是一个可怕的系统；相反，若行得好，它会成为彼此协作的一大群人，能够成就比个人或小团体更美好的事。

同心服侍

基督复活升天后，信祂的犹太人就与列国的百姓一同承受了天国的产业。所有接受耶稣的百姓将共同组成一个新以色列国。它是上帝的新国度，是由耶稣在祂里面所建立的。在社会可接纳的范围内，新约教会在平等的基础上不断拓展前进。凡受洗归入基督的人，都得以进入上帝的家（加拉太书3:26-29），被称为上帝的儿子，都成为了福音的传播者（希伯来书8:10-13），和基督同作上帝的后嗣（罗马书8:14-17)，都领受了圣灵的浇灌，是平等的兄弟姐妹，是有君尊的祭司，基督乃是我们的大祭司，是圣洁的国度，是蒙上帝呼召的子民（彼得前书2:9）。基督拆毁了我们中间阻隔的墙，将两下合而为一，把我们建造成为灵宫（以弗所书2:14；彼得前书2:5）

这种合一，就是充满爱的上帝照亮世界的方法。（请参阅以弗所书2,3章；彼得前书2章）。同时，耶稣告诉我们如何分辨麦子和稗子，甚至是在教会内部:“你们若有彼此相爱的心，众人因此就认出你们是我的门徒了”（约翰福音13:35）。这就是耶稣所说的“……上帝的国在你们心里”（路加福音17:21）的意思。你会见到上帝所说的麦子，他们像耶稣那样爱别人。他们不分种族、性别或阶级，平等地对待每一个人。不幸的是，纵观历史，基督徒不是一直都能做到如此待人，即使今天仍然不能，这个事实显出了人性的弱点，没有展现上帝仁爱的品格。《圣经》中那些滥用和误用制度的实例，并不是上帝想让你借鉴的正确生活方式。很多时候，当你阅读《圣经》中的故事时，你不禁感慨：“这个世界到底怎么了？”–你读到的信息可能是“哪些事不该做”。也就是说，《圣经》并不总是记录好事。《圣经》中的许多故事都向我们展示了罪的可怕后果。

如果你仰望上帝，求问如何才能成为上帝教会中的一员，那么请遵循以下原则：用耶稣所示范的那种自我牺牲、纯全和圣洁的爱去爱每一个人，并教导他人也如此行。你可能没有完美的神学知识；你可能不明白所有的教义。但爱从来不会错。遵循这个爱的原则，凭着信，宣告福音的应许，成为上帝国中的一员。你将结出圣灵的果子（加拉太书5:22,23）并活出顺服的生命（约翰福音15:10）。

LESSON 12: UNITY

Equality

Before the curses in the Garden of Eden, the man (Adam) and the woman (Eve) were equals. God made Eve from Adam’s rib. He could have made Eve from Adam’s head or from his feet.  Either act would have demonstrated either the superiority or the inferiority of the woman. But He didn’t because that inequality wouldn’t reflect the image of God. The image of love. The Trinity works together as equal partners in perfect harmony yet performing different roles. Adam and Eve were to do the same.The curses that God pronounced after sin were meant not as evil but as good. They would provide difficulty, yes—but this difficulty would teach us spiritual lessons for our own benefit.

Discrimination

What has transpired throughout the human race since the fall is not only gender domination, but a series of unfortunate racial and class-based discriminations. Greed, exploitation, corruption, oppression are, unfortunately, the rule, not the exception, to our fallen world.But this isn’t how God wanted things. He continually tried to draw people to a closer reflection of His image, even while meeting them where they were. Ancient Israel wasn’t a perfect society even though God was the King. Most likely, though, it was the best society possible for the time, with principles of love and grace that were unheard of in the surrounding nations.God calls people to reflect His image and glory through purity, holiness, goodness, and love. He works within the culture of individuals and communities. Working within a culture, any culture, inevitably causes limitations on how much can be done, even by God (respecting human free will), but these limitations are the result of us and our flaws. This is why God constantly calls us to more clearly represent His character and image; the more we do, the more good things we can bring to our societies and to others.

Affirmative Action

When the nation of Israel surrendered themselves to His authority, He established various gender, class, and race-based laws that would protect the easy targets of discrimination. These laws did not exist in most other cultures and communities.

Take care of the stranger or foreigner: Leviticus 19:33; Deuteronomy 10:18, 19

Take care of the poor: Deuteronomy 15:7, 8; Job 29:12

Take care of women: Exodus 22:22; 27:19; Numbers 36:6

Take care of the fatherless and widows: Isaiah 1:17; Deuteronomy 10:18

Rights of a slave: Exodus 20:8-11

Freeing of slaves during Jubilee: Leviticus 25:13

He wanted the Kingdom of Israel to be a place of equality and of grace.

He wanted it to be a place of justice and mercy.

He wanted to establish it as a place where righteousness was the model.

And He wanted it to be an example to the world.

Justice and Mercy

With the coming of Jesus, God took humanity much further morally. Jesus met and touched individuals—Gentiles, Samaritans, a woman with a menstrual disorder, women of other nations, the blind people, the handicapped—which the society often viewed as impure. In all these situations, He treated these people, these outcasts often, as humans of incredible worth.Though none of the 12 disciples were women, Jesus did spend considerable amounts of time teaching women the gospel, and they were always present among His followers. And, fascinatingly enough, the first people the resurrected Christ appeared to were women. He counter-culturally spoke, mingled, taught, and engaged with women (Some examples among the many are found in Luke 10:38-42; John 4).Christ taught about the importance of serving others and taking care of the oppressed and marginalized among us—as the more important things that a Christian should do (Matthew 23:23). His followers realized that call and continued demonstrating and sharing that message as well. All are still called to faithfully take care of those who can’t take care of themselves…this is true religion (James 1:27). Religion isn’t a system to be afraid of; on the contrary, if done right it becomes a large group of people who, together, are capable of doing far more good than a single individual or small group could.

United to Serve

After Christ’s resurrection and ascension, the Jews who believed in Him became co-heirs with all the nations of the world. All peoples who accepted Jesus would together form a new Israel. This new Israel was the new Kingdom of God, and it was established in and by Jesus. The new covenant church moved forward at a new level of equality, at least as far as society would allow it to. Anyone baptized in Christ became adopted into the family of God (Galatians 3:26-29).All were adopted as sons.  

All became ministers of the Gospel (Hebrews 8:10-13). All would, as heirs of the promises of heaven (Romans 8:14-17), receive the down payment of the Holy Spirit.

All would be equal as one family of brothers and sisters; one group of priests, with Christ as our High Priest; one race of people in Christ; and one special people called together by Christ (1 Peter 2:9). Having knocked down the wall that separated all of us, Christ then built us up into a spiritual house—a tabernacle (Ephesians 2:14; 1 Peter 2:5) This oneness, this unity, would be the method by which our God of love would shine forth to the world. (Read more about this in Ephesians 2, 3; 1 Peter 2).

Meanwhile, Jesus told us how to discern between wheat and the weeds even among the church itself: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). This is what Jesus meant when He said, “…the Kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:21). You will know someone who is wheat because they love others the way that Jesus loved. They treat every human being equally, without regard to race, gender, or class. The unfortunate fact that Christians have not through history always done this, or even now don’t (at least not always), reveals only human weakness; it says nothing about the loving character of God. The examples in the Bible of people abusing and misusing the system are not the models of right living that God wants you to draw lessons from.

Most of the time, when you read stories in the Bible that make you say, “What in the world?”—you are probably reading stories about what not to do. That is, just because something happened in the Bible doesn’t mean it’s good. Many of the Bible stories are there to show us the terrible results of sin.If you are looking up to God and asking how you can be a part of God’s church family, then follow this principle:

Love every person with the same self-sacrificing, pure, and holy love that God loves with, and teach others to do the same. You might not have perfect theology; you might not understand all doctrine. But love is never wrong. Follow this principle of love, and—by faith claiming the promises of the Gospel—you will be a part of the Kingdom of God. Your fruit will be the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23) and a life of obedience (John 15:10).

原文链接：https://www.apictureofgod.com/unity