A Place to Call Home
Let's get back to our walk through 1 Timothy. In chapter 5, Paul begins to talk about family.
What Makes a Family?
When we bought a car a few years back, the man who handed us the keys said "welcome to the Suzuki family!" I've been thinking about that ever since, because I don't feel any family connection to the person in a Suzuki Swift in the lane next to me.
It reminds me of an old Rodney Dangerfield bit - maybe you remember him from decades ago. He walked into his bank and saw a sign on the wall saying "welcome to the family". Then he skipped a few payments on his car, and as he told it, now his "family" had taken his car away.
Let's be honest, a group with something in common isn't necessarily a family. I googled the definition of ‘family’, and it came up with two: “a group of one or two parents and their children living together as a unit”; and secondly, “all the descendants of a common ancestor”. That makes sense. Your relatives, your home life - this is the primary place you are called to live out your faith. Our own family doubled not long ago, with the arrival of twins!
Why the Church Is a Family Too
Church is a family as well, in a real sense. If a family is made up of all the descendants of a common ancestor, then a church is a family with Jesus as our common ancestor. We are gathered as a group of believers with Jesus as our Saviour, and that makes us family in a far more profound way than driving the same brand of car.
I remember when our church celebrated our first birthday as the English congregation, I asked people to write a sentence about what church meant to them. Let me read you a few of the messages I got. "It feels like family." "We were so lost, thank God we found a place to call home." "A place to call home."
That is what church is about, really.
Being Faithful in Both of Your Families
In this chapter Paul talks about two different families. He talks about the home family - spouses, children, parents, and the rest. He talks about the church family, a community of believers who worship together and try to support one another in the Christian life.
And Paul calls us to faithfulness in both of these settings. Over the next few days we'll walk through what that faithfulness looks like in each one.
For now, hold the two pictures together in your mind. The people around your supper table and the people in the row behind you on a Sunday are both your family, and God asks you to be faithful in both. It isn't your Suzuki family or your bank family that will carry you through. Ask Him today to show you which of your two families you have been neglecting, and to give you the grace to put it right this week.
The people under your roof and the people in the pew are the two families God calls you to be faithful in. Work out today which of those two you have been neglecting, and do something about it this week.