Family

Family - Audio/Visual

Family

I hope to visit you soon. However, I’m writing this to you in case I’m delayed. I want you to know how people who are members of God’s family must live. God’s family is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:14-15)

Gary Klahr and Steve Barbin acted just like brothers. The two Fairfield, Connecticut, residents looked alike, finished each other's sentences, and even spoke with the same kind of inflection. Gary served as Steve's best man, and Steve supported Gary through his father's death. They were inseparable for twenty-five years. And on December 30, 1998, their friendship made all the sense in the world.

A caseworker called Gary with some personal questions. He thought she wanted to know if he was interested in adoption. He was partially correct. Her call concerned adoption – his own. The news came like a bolt out of the blue. For fifty-one years he’d assumed he was Benjamin and Marjorie Klahr's biological child. Surprise! And that discovery was just the beginning. Gary happened to mention that his friend Steve Barbin was adopted as well. The caseworker showed instant interest and telephoned Steve. "Are you sitting down? You have a brother," she informed him. "Your friend, Gary Klahr." Not just buddies, but brothers. Not just friends, but family. How do you think these two men felt when they got the news? God wants you to find out.

He offers you a family of friends, and friends who are family – his church. "His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure." (Eph. 1:5) When you transfer your trust into Christ, he not only pardons you but he places you in his family of friends.

The term "family" far and away outpaces any other biblical term used to describe the church. "Brothers," or "brothers and sisters," appears a whopping 148 times between the book of Acts and the book of Revelation. Here’s just a few: “Love the brothers and sisters of God's family.” (1 Pet. 2:17) “Brothers and sisters, now we encourage you to love them even more.” (1 Thess. 4:10) “Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.” (Heb. 13:1) “Now that you have made your souls pure by obeying the truth, you can have true love for your Christian brothers and sisters.” (1 Pet. 1:22) “God's family is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” (1 Tim. 3:15) God is building a family. A permanent family.

Sadly, earthly families enjoy rather short shelf lives. Even those that sidestep divorce are eventually divided by death. God's family, however, will outlive the universe. "When I think of the wisdom and scope of his plan I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father of all the great family of God – some of them already in heaven and some down here on earth." (Eph. 3:14-15) Jesus even defined his family according to faith, not the flesh. "A multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, 'Look, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.' But he answered them, saying, 'Who is my mother, or my brothers? . . . Whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister and mother.'" (Mark 3:32-33, 35)

Common belief identifies members of God's family. And common affection unites them. Paul gives this relationship rule for the church: "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love." (Rom. 12:10) The apostle plays a bit of the wordsmith here, bookending the verse with fraternal-twin terms. He begins with philostorgos (philos means friendly; storgos means family love – and used only this one time in the Bible) and concludes with philadelphia (phileo means tender affection; adelphia means brethren.) An awkward but fairly accurate translation of the verse might be "Have a friend/family devotion to each other in a friend/family sort of way." In other words, if Paul doesn't get us with the first adjective, he catches us with the second. In both he reminds us that the church is God's family.

You didn't pick me, and I didn't pick you. You may not even like me. But since God picked and likes us both, we’re family. And we treat each other as friends. C. S. Lewis said, "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'" If similar experiences create friendships, shouldn't the church be overflowing with them? With whom do you have more in common than fellow believers? Amazed by the same manger, stirred by the same Bible, saved by the same cross, and destined for the same home. Can’t you echo the words of the psalmist? "I am a friend to everyone who fears you, to anyone who obeys your orders." (Ps. 119:63) The church. More than family, we are friends. More than friends, we are family. God's family of friends.

Colorado aspens provide a living picture of the church. Have you ever noticed how they grow in groups, often on the otherwise bald sides of mountains? They are sun-seekers and root-sharers. Unlike firs or pines, which prefer shade, aspens worship warmth. Unlike oaks, whose roots go deep, aspen roots go wide. They intertwine with other roots and share the same nutrients. They’re light lovers, and root-sharers. Sounds like a healthy church.

Oddly, some people enjoy the shade of the church while refusing to put down any roots. God, yes. Church, no. They like the benefits, but resist commitment. The music, the message, and the clean conscience – they accept the perks of church. So they date her, visit her. Enjoy an occasional rendezvous. They use the church. But commit to the church? Can't do that. Got to keep my options open. Don't want to miss out on any opportunities. Sadly, they already have. Miss the church and you miss God's sanctioned tool for God promotion because church is a key place to do what you do best to the glory of God. In fact, Scripture calls the church a poem. "We are His workmanship." (Eph. 2:10)

The Greek word for “workmanship” is poiema, which gives us our English words for poem and poetry. We’re God's poetry. What Longfellow did with pen and paper, our Maker does with us. We express his creative best. But you aren't God's poetry any more than I'm God's poetry. It’s we. We’re God's poetry. And poetry demands variety. "God works through different men in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves his purposes through them all." (1 Cor. 12:6) God uses all types to type his message. Logical thinkers. Emotional worshipers. Dynamic leaders. Docile followers. The visionaries who lead, the studious who ponder, the generous who pay the bills. Alone, we are meaningless symbols on a page. But collectively, we inspire. "All of you together are Christ's body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it." (1 Cor. 12:27) The billions of Christ followers over the last 2,000 years have this in common: "A spiritual gift is given to each of us." (1 Cor. 12:7) God's body has no nobodies. No exceptions. No exclusions. Our gifts make an eternal difference only in concert with the church.

Apart from the body of Christ, we are like clipped fingernails, or shaved whiskers. Who needs them? No one. They make no contribution. The same applies to our gifts. "Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body." (Rom. 12:5) “And Christ gave gifts to people – he made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to have the work of caring for and teaching God's people. Christ gave those gifts to prepare God's holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger.” (Eph. 4:11-12)

He grants gifts so we can "prepare God's holy people." Paul reached into the medical dictionary for that term, prepare. Doctors in his day used it to describe the setting of a broken bone. And broken people come to churches. Not with broken bones, but broken hearts, homes, dreams and lives. They limp in on a fractured faith. And if the church operates as the church, they find healing. Pastor-teachers touch and teach. Gospel bearers share good news. Prophets speak words of truth. Visionaries dream of greater impact. Some administer. Some pray. Some lead. Some follow. But all help to heal brokenness: "to make the body of Christ stronger." (Eph. 4:12) God heals his family through his family.

In the church we use our gifts to love each other, honor one another, keep an eye on troublemakers, and carry each other's burdens. Do you need encouragement, prayers, or a place to call home? God entrusts the church to purvey these treasures. Consider the church God's treatment center – a hospital for the sick and broken soul. Don't miss the place to find your place, and heal your hurts. No one is strong all the time. Discover what Gary Klahr and Steve Barbin did: friends and family – all in the same faces.

By the way, the caseworker eventually identified that Gary and Steve had eleven other siblings. A workout partner was Gary's brother, and a former girlfriend was his sister. (That's a little creepy.) Today, consider the immensity, beauty and surprises of family life. In God's church, may you find them all.

Grace,

Randy