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This study seeks to unfold the meaning of Col 3:11, comparing it to Gal 3:28 and 1 Cor 12:13. Despite the recurring terms “Greek and Jew” or “slave and free”, the three texts cannot be proven to represent any fixed form of speech. All three lists should be interpreted within their own settings. Accordingly, within the context of the Epistle to the Colossians, and especially Col 3:5–17, it can be concluded that, in contrast to the catalogue of offences mentioned in vss. 5 and 8–9, none of the characters listed in Col 3:11 are incompatible with the new man, nor with the set of Christian virtues in vss. 12–17. Depending on the available data, the individual terms of vs. 11 are interpreted within the larger Pauline corpus as well.

We are always seeking for the sense of the life, for ourselves and for the place in our family and community. Religion shows a new way to us, according to Jesus Christ’s principles. The son of God not only created a religion, but gave us an example how to live, and sacrifice himself for us. Sándor Karácsony reckons religion as a spiritual behavior, the base of our social contacts. We have to see into our lives and character according to the message of Jesus Christ. The right and appropriate personality can be evolved by individual training.

The views of Sándor Karácsony about religious education can be clearly discerned from his writings. The main task of reformed pedagogy is to activate continuously the divine notions in this continuously changing world. Protestant teachers must accomplish their daily work according to the Gospel of Christ. The Hungarian Reformed Church was a so-called “church of schools” for hundreds of years. This means that even between WWI and WWII it owned more schools than churches. The number of Reformed schools is significant even today. Sándor Karácsony claims that only Reformed people and communities are able to maintain Reformed schools by people who “are ready to serve and sacrifice themselves” for this cause (Karácsony, Sándor: A magyarok Istene. Széphalom Könyvműhely, Budapest 2004, 172).