The human tendency is to create distinctions. We create groups, organizations, clubs—any form where there is inclusion and exclusion. This way we can separate ourselves or incorporate ourselves, depending on the motive. Behind it all is often the desire to be different and superior. I see it on the tennis courts. The 3.5 group doesn’t want to play the 2.5. The 4.0 is superior to all. There is also the tendency to rate ourselves higher than we actually are.
What happens on the tennis court is simply a minor acting-out of the greater issue that Paul was referring to in Galatians 3:38;
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.
Here Paul was dismantling what Fleming Rutledge describes as “One of the great certainties about the human race is that we perpetually make distinctions among ourselves in order to judge ourselves or our group more favorably than others.” (1) The greatest error is to judge oneself as righteous.
How is this tendency to be fixed? It is to be made new in Christ;
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17, King James Version
This interpretation from The Message Bible is helpful:
Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges!
Distinctions are dangerous. They happen, but we don’t have to live with them or be controlled by them. Discover your true identify, your true affiliation in Christ.
1 Help My Unbelief
Photo interpretation: Is the ball in or out? A metaphor for making distinctions.