The same as you used to be
They were still Gentiles. He was writing to Greeks in Ephesus who had converted to Christianity. They were not Jewish proselytes, that is, they had not converted to Judaism. Also, they were not circumcised; their flesh was the same.
Not only are they still Gentiles in the flesh, but they still bear aspersion from the Jewish nation. See how Paul recalls to their mind the Jew assigned label: “the uncircumcision”? In Jewish eyes, this label was a word of distinction and not of the good sort.
Paul does not avoid this word as socially inappropriate but engages it head on. He simultaneously unhooks its value by drawing attention to the authority behind this epithet. At its origin in the Jewish culture, God required circumcision as a symbol of difference from the world of men. The God intended point was not flesh alteration but heart alteration. Unfortunately, large tracts of the Jewish culture co-opted the symbol as the significance. Paul says in verse 11 that the labels are of no use for they derive from human tradition.
What about our day?
Our culture considers some words to be out-of-bounds. The “N”-word most especially comes to mind. Even saying it or typing it into a blog is culturally charged. It is off-limits. That word and all it implies is the best correlate I can draw to fashion the point of the word Gentile.
In our culture use of such a word is intended to darken the character of another to cast aspersion upon them. One looks at an outward trait and decides upon an inner one. It is a judging of the heart by its cover. The greatest revelation is the black heart of the one using the tag. The user of the word reveals personal darkness. That inner evil is a belief that “I am better than you.”
Parents should teach their children that certain words are off-limits. There is a more important thing for them to train into their children, though. That is the skill of recognizing the bigger, background problem of pride; self-aggrandizement lives in the human heart, and that is the thing that needs God-addressed, God-fixed. When the heart is right, the words will follow suit.
Two more things come to my mind in light of this. First, parents must teach with words and deeds. They must say one thing and follow it up by modeling it. Second, pride often lives behind quiet lips. Quiet lips are better than loud ones, but they are no guarantee of purity.
Our culture will cast stones at those with loose lips. The problem is the ubiquity of loose hearts.
Some things have changed
The people in Ephesus were still Gentiles. Paul painted this as irrelevant by tying the label to the deeds of men. The message Paul was driving home was their difference in God’s eyes, by God’s hand. The hand of the Jewish circumcisionist 1was irrelevant. The hand of God in circumcising the heart of stone was ultimate. One was but a flesh wound; the other a heart one, but rebellion in the heart needs a mortal injury.
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