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
REFLECT & PRAY
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.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In Galatians 3:26–28, the apostle Paul writes that Jesus is the great unifier and barrier breaker. In Ephesians 4:1–3, Paul urges the Ephesians and us to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” What’s the unity of the Spirit? As believers in Jesus, we have the Spirit living inside us; and as members of one body, the church, the Spirit helps us to live in peace. We have “one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all” ( vv. 5–6). As His disciples, we’re called to “be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble” (1 Peter 3:8).
Alyson Kieda
Our mission is to make the life-changing wisdom of the Bible understandable and accessible to all.
