You have had those moments when you had that fight with your sibling from coming into your room while you were gone. That moment when your parents and you didn’t see eye to eye on the person you were dating. And that embarrassing moment with your grandparent corrected you in front of everyone…and you were 32 years old. We’ve all had difficult moments in our physical families but that didn’t mean we left and never came back. They are family so through thick and thin, good and bad times, you stuck it out.
That’s the type of stick-to-itiveness that Paul calls us to with our spiritual family in Ephesians 4. Look, we’ve all had moments when we’ve been annoyed with someone’s actions and words in our church family. There have been heated discussions about theology and ministry where we didn’t see eye to eye with the one “running the show”. But that is never cause to leave because we are family with Jesus being the oldest brother.
We learn through the example of the New Testament church, that although we are many people, we are one family. And in our family, we should be able to be authentic and real. Even in dire moments, we know we have each other’s back because that’s what family does. We take time to listen to our stories, pray together, encourage each other, do life together (see Acts 2:42-47).
Jesus calls us to be salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-16). And when we stand with each other and support one another, the world takes notice because it doesn’t have that. We may disagree on some things but we never let that stand in the way of our exhibited love for each other.
It’s a reminder that we also stand for each other. We actually want each other to succeed. So with patience, forgiveness and love, we stand together knowing none of us are perfect. Only one family member is and his name is Jesus Christ.
Paul reminds us that we, the church, are like a human body. Every member is important. No member can say “I don’t need that person or that family”. We discover that when all the parts of our spiritual family are functioning, the body of Christ is everything it was designed to be. We can fulfill our mission.
Finally, we discover that together, we can accomplish the mission. The mission of God is realizing our call to tell the Gospel story. It’s the story of a God who loves his creation so much He sent his Son to die for us so we might live. And when the family of God is loving on each other, we have the opportunity to be that storytelling salt and light in this chaotic world.
Together we are stronger for Jesus. Together we can get through anything. Together we represent Jesus and everything this world needs. Blessings on the journey.