The old - new contrast is strikingly clear. What is not so clear here in this passage is the identity or delimitation of whom Paul includes within this "new man" that God has created. Are all, Jew and gentile alike, automatically now included?

"you… are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone" perhaps gives us a clue. First Christ Jesus preached peace, then this is followed by apostles and prophets and the foundation that they lay - on which God then proceeds to build.

I find this implied preaching of Jesus, this foundation, to be a constant theme in the epistles. The "preaching Christ, and him crucified" being the thread that explains the prominence of our four ‘gospels’ both for catechesis and for evangel. So then, these hearers are those to whom Jesus has been preached and who have heard from the apostles and prophets the actual preaching of Jesus, and who have responded to that message with faith.

Is there only a tiny core of this ‘new humanity’? And does this then exclude the others?

Live to serve : Serve to live