It is true that in Christ we are not "male and female"; that is, our identity is more than just our gender, and both males and females are of great value. The switch from "or" to "and" may be a discourse-level marker, terminating the sentence. (Recall that NT Greek did not originally have punctuation.) "And" is often used as a sentence introducer in exactly that way in the NT. God's good news is that women, slaves, and gentiles are full citizens of God's kingdom. The verse mentions nothing about sexual object choice.

21 August 1996. Copyright information is available.