‘Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, but Christ is all in all.'
Once likeness to Christ becomes the objective all these divisions fall away. No Christian will want to be either one alternative or the other. They will want only to be His. They want their thoughts to be taken up with Him, as He is in the heavenlies where Christ is all. They want to be fully possessed and indwelt by Christ, to be ‘in Christ'. Thus all other distinctions become irrelevant. There is no pride of religion, or pride of race, or pride of status with the true Christian. He wants only to be a Christ-man.
The Jews thought themselves superior to the Greeks, the circumcision thought themselves superior to the uncircumcision, the Greeks thought themselves superior to the Barbarians, and included the Jews among these, all thought themselves superior to the Scythians (the savageness of the Scythians was proverbial), but in Christ all these distinctions are done away. And even social status was irrelevant. For in Christ bondmen and freemen were equal. The former were no longer to be seen as chattels but as brothers, and of equal value in the sight of God.