Years ago, my wife Cassie and I were youth pastors in a small town, Harlowton, Montana. One of our passions was starting a Junior Bible Quiz program—a competitive, memory-based approach to teaching kids the Bible. Our first-year team was dominating the lower B league. We were big fish in a small pond.
Cassie suggested we challenge ourselves and move up to the A league. But one of our boys, Alex, offered a piece of wisdom that stuck with me. He simply said, “I would rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.”
The Law of the Pond: Hostility
Alex’s metaphor captures a harsh truth about our world. It's a fish-eat-fish world. We’re all in a pond, part of a food chain. Would you rather be the pike or the minnow? We instinctively school up with fish that look and act like us, and we keep our distance from those in other ponds.
And what happens when we look across the watery divide? We judge. We get jealous. We fight. Since the first act of sibling rivalry between Cain and Abel, sin has crouched at the door of the human heart, turning us against one another. It leads to tribalism: pond against pond, people against people, family against family, nation against nation. This is the root of hostility.
A Unique Calling: Fishers of Men
As followers of Jesus, we are called to be unique people with a unique purpose on a unique path. Jesus didn't come down to devour the other fish. He came to die for them and, in the process, make us into fishermen.
Our purpose, in Christ, isn't to stay in the pond and become part of the food chain. It’s to move people closer to Jesus. He told his first disciples, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
This unique purpose flows from a new reality. As Ephesians 2:10 tells us: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
In the original creation, everything was a masterpiece. But that masterpiece was quickly marred and disfigured by sin. As a result, we war against one another, and ultimately, against our Creator. We become hostile.
Remember the Outside
When we are created anew in Christ, we are told to remember who we once were.
In Ephesians 2:11-12, Paul asks the Gentiles (non-Jews) to reflect:
Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders... In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship... You lived in this world without God and without hope.
The Old Testament called Israel to remember they were once slaves and foreigners. We must do the same. Remember what it's like to be an outsider: disjointed, dysfunctional, hostile, and without hope. It's in this powerful realization of our deep need that our souls are humbled and we become grateful for God's grace.
When we forget what it was like to be outside of Christ, we often weaponize that language against others—the marginalized, those with different beliefs, or those we simply deem to be in "the wrong pond." This is anti-grace and anti-Jesus. It replaces holiness with hostility.
But Now: The End of Hostility
Paul’s message moves from "remember" to a radical shift: “But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13)
What changed us? Christ!
For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separates us... Together as one body, Christ has reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. (Ephesians 2:14, 16)
Jesus leveled the playing field. All the outsiders, including you and me, directed our hostility against him, and he took it to the cross. Now, instead of being in the business of taking life, we are in the business of saving life and bringing life to the full.
From Hostility to Holiness
When you are in Christ, you are no longer a stranger or foreigner. You are a citizen of God's Kingdom, a member of God’s family, and a living stone in God's holy temple.
So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. (Ephesians 2:19)
Our purpose is to be this holy temple. To be holy is to be set apart—set apart not from people, but from the sin and hostility that once defined us. Jesus’s brand of holiness never results in hostility toward others.
It’s crucial to understand that the masterpiece in Ephesians 2:10 is not just the individual, but the church—the unification of people from all tribes, tongues, and backgrounds into one body. This beautiful and powerful unification is the true masterpiece.
So, where do we stand today? Are we going to be hostile or holy toward those outside our pond?
Remember who you were.
Remember Christ and the peace he bought with his blood.
In response, confess any hostility you hold in your heart and ask God to set you apart as holy. Let us embrace the purpose of being fishers of men, not part of the food chain.
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