Christian, You Need Your Church!
It is a mushy Sunday morning… not just because there is snow on the ground, but because this Lord’s Day is missing an essential ingredient: the church gathering. A cake with no flour.
Now the second week in a row we have been unable to gather due to snow in the South. I miss my church.
Whenever I consider the necessity of the church, my mind goes to the book of Philemon. This small book, almost hidden in the New Testament, is fascinating. Paul writes to Philemon, a leader in the church in Colossae (also the homeowner where the church gathers), to urge him to receive back his runaway slave. Onesimus, once a slave of Philemon, presumably wronged him and then ran away. By God’s providence, He met the imprisoned Paul and was converted! So, Paul tells Philemon to receive him no longer as a slave, but as a brother! Beautiful.
This is the only letter of Paul’s in which he does not mention the death and resurrection of Jesus. Don’t panic. It is not because he does not think it applies. Rather, it is assumed. He is writing to believers about living as believers. So, the whole letter is how the gospel (life, death, resurrection of Jesus) affects relationships between believers.
After his greeting, Paul tells Philemon of his prayers for him (v 6-7). In this prayer, he lays out the theme of the letter and tells us the necessity of the church:
6 …I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
Paul prays for the “sharing of [their] faith.” That word “sharing” is the same word translated elsewhere as “partnership” or “fellowship.” That is, the fellowship of faith, faith shared with other believers.
He prays that the sharing of faith would “become effective…” that it would work as it was intended to work.
He prays that their fellowship would work for the “full knowledge of every good thing that is in us…” Knowledge in the Bible is rarely just a head knowledge. It is a heart knowledge; a full understanding and experience… of “every good thing that is in us.” By the Spirit, we have all the good that Jesus is and offers. We start to bear the fruit of the Spirit. We start to love what Jesus loves, want what Jesus wants. We are being conformed into the image of God’s Son.
All of this is “for the sake of Christ.” We become like Christ for his glory.
What am I saying? Better yet, what is Paul saying? He is saying that to experience all the good in us that Christ has for us, we need our fellow believers!
And look how that was working out among Paul:
7 For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
Who has benefited from living the Christian life together? Paul received comfort and joy from Philemon. Philemon received love and instruction from Paul. The church has received love from Philemon. Paul has been refreshed from the church.
When we love and live with one another as God intends, we become more like Jesus… and the Spirit takes one act of love between two believers and extends the fruit toward the whole church.
So… I miss my church. We need each other to become like Christ. We need each other to be refreshed in Christ. While we wait to gather again, pray for the Spirit to stir our longing for Christ and his people!
Pastor Mark