Did you ever see eye to eye with your siblings? Your parents? Even yourself? We’ve all grown up in a family where we celebrated joy and accomplishment together and we also weathered storms together. But no matter how we disagreed, we never left each other. We may have had moments of silence and separation but eventually, we worked it out. Why? Because we are family.
The church is the same way. We are family. We journey together. We may not always get along or see things each other’s way but we don’t walk out on each other. We communicate. We become empathetic. We work it out and meet somewhere in the middle. But we don’t just walk out on each other…that is if we are truly trying to be the body of Christ.
In Acts 2:42-47, we see the description of something radical in that first century. Social groups who were very different but allowing Jesus to unite them in unity…to become family. Even though in that church there were Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slave owners and slaves, merchants and paupers, they all felt equal and united in Jesus. We see them meeting in each other’s houses, taking meals together, selling things and giving money away. They were truly acting like a family, exactly how Jesus had designed it. And we see a couple of things that described them to make this new life happen well.
That first church acted as one family filled with the Holy Spirit. When you look at their life, we know they realized they were created to be in community lifting up the one Savior who made it possible. Even Jesus prayed for the church’s unity. In John 17, Jesus prays for us today saying, “May we be unified to each other like Jesus and Father are unified.”
They were discarding anger, rage, harsh words, selfish thoughts (Ephesians 4) and looking like Jesus. The only way to overcome our selfish desires is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
But they were also one family who had emptied “self”. They realized in Jesus, it was all about serving others and inclusiveness. The type of life Jesus had exampled for us. That first church wanted to look like Jesus and start this radical new community of people who were trying to look like him. The Greek word for that is “ecclesia”. It means “set apart” or “called out”. The church is different from the world. It treats God’s creation differently than the world. The church is called out from the world to be an example of family, community, Jesus.
And today, we are called to live the same way. To be the light for the world around us. We’re called to stop in fighting, stop the hatefulness, stop the self-centeredness. As we look at that first church, we see people who had surrendered to Jesus and were living in such a way the world was taking notice. So, how are you living? Are you looking like Jesus or fighting to get your way? It’s time to leave behind the script the world gives out and live into a life like Jesus. Blessings on your journey.