Stay Connected
This sign was recently sent to me and I couldn’t help but laugh, but also wonder.
God has made us relational beings and we find fulfillment in all the special human connections He has blessed us to experience: spouse, children, siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, workmates, schoolmates, teammates, neighbors, etc.
High on that list (as they should be) are those we will spend eternity with. When God formed His church, He placed you and me into a family of brothers and sisters in Christ called “God’s household” (Eph. 2:19). In fact, everything about the church revolves around our common connection in Christ.
Take note of the following:
This connection is modeled in the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit live in perfect love (“God is love”) and unity. Jesus prayed that “They may be one just as we are one” (Jn. 17:22).
This connection is the mission for which Christ came. In sin, we were “alienated,” “excluded,” “strangers,” and “enemies,” but when the Lord came, He “reconciled” us to Himself, “made peace” (Eph. 2:14-16), and “adopted” us into His forever family (Gal. 4:5).
This connection is a mandate from God Himself. We are given a multiplicity of “one another” responsibilities that are designed to help us grow in Christ and experience the countless blessings of relational and spiritual care in the church.
This connection is the meaning of all the church metaphors. As relational people, God describes our spiritual relationships as a “body” with many members, “branches” vitally connected to the vine, a “bride” who exists to please his groom (Christ), a “household” of brothers and sisters, a “flock” of needy sheep, a “temple” built together with living stones, and a “kingdom” of fellow citizens. Ephesians 4:16 sums it up well: “from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
This connection is the ministry of the greatest and most beneficial virtue, love. Love is only useful when applied in the context of relationship. It is called “the perfect bond of unity” (Col. 3:14) and it regulates the dynamic of all our relationships.
Any way you slice it, we are blessed to be uniquely and profoundly connected together. And even when those connections become hard, strained, or awkward, we need to be intentional about staying connected as we stand firm “in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27).
It can be easy to want to "stay away" from certain people we don't connect well with or due to other concerns or issues, but remember who they are and the privileged connection God has made for you and them in His church.
Pastor Jeff