Midweek Messsage from the Archive
God’s Family
The Church is Christ’s Church and He is possessive and quite jealous over her. He created and has sustained her, His Bride, for two millennium and is returning on the last day to finalize the marriage. This love affair began in Jerusalem, advanced throughout the world, and is completing its circular cycle back to Jerusalem where Jesus will return. His Church is destined to remain His Bride and spouse for all eternity and Satan simply does not have the power to overthrow or vanquish her. He tries to triumph over her in futile attempts; Christ’s Church grows stronger with persecution. Truly a mystery.
Corporately, we are all in this same family, regardless of our time period in history or our place on the planet. We are a community of saints and for that reason the apostle Paul gave us instructions on behavior. We just completed another holiday where some of us were challenged in the ‘family arena’. Families can be difficult, even dysfunctional, but we are encouraged by Jesus and the other writers of the New Testament to forgive and love. It’s the same command in the Church.
Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. (Galatians 6:10 NLT)
Since individual churches resemble families we care for one another in love in spite of our differences. We obviously won’t agree on everything, we’ll have different opinions and perspectives, but we are commanded to love, forgive, and serve one another. There’s a unique sense of unity when you worship with your church family, fellowship over a meal, and celebrate Holy Communion together. The book of Acts tells us that when others observe this great joy and generosity among believers they are drawn to praise our Lord and often get saved as a result. That’s a good reason to experience this love relationship.
Our church family is also the household of God. The way we conduct ourselves is seen by the community and speaks volumes. The Church is God’s household, His inheritance, His people, His kindred, and He desires to communicate to and through us by His Spirit.
A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 1 Corinthians 12:7-10 NLT
Let’s strive to develop family unity in our churches and depend on His Spirit to lead us in the way.
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