#2 What's a Christian?
 

Wherever You Are
 

Paul . . . to the . . . brothers in Christ at Colosse.
(Colossians 1:2)
 

    This little group of people that we call the church at Colosse now regarded each other as brothers in Christ.
    Many of them, no doubt, had run into real problems with their blood relatives. There had been some real divisions when they became Christians. Some of you can sympathize with them. When you became a Christian, the members of your family didn't like it. They resisted what you would say and seemed to resent what you stand for. But God steps in, and in one sense, compensates. You can't totally compensate for the estrangement of your blood relatives, but there is some compensation in discovering in the fellowship of believers a whole new set of brothers and sisters.
    You are part of a new family, a much bigger family. That's one reason people come to Christ in our society. With the breakup of marriage and family, there are many lovely, lonely, discouraged, disconsolate people. But when they= re introduced to Christ, they're introduced to a whole new community. In that new community they find a whole lot of new brothers and sisters.
    This description is essentially practical. For Paul is sitting in a smelly cell, with a specific town in mind. He knows the people of that town and what they're up against, and he's interested in their becoming spiritually, morally, intellectually, and sociologically distinctive believers in Colosse.
    Colosse had a great history, but it had fallen on hard times. It had been a superior city, but it now was being overshadowed by Laodicea and Hierapolis nearby, and Ephesus not many miles away. It was known for its paganism, a place overrun by idolatry.
    The apostle says it's there - in that one-horse-town with a chip on its shoulder, in that place riddled with idolatry and governed by paganism - it's in that environment that believers were called to live holy, distinctive, winsomely attractive lives.
    How does all this apply to us? Very simply. The Spirit of God would say to you and me today, "Are you holy, faithful brothers in Christ in your community? In your towns and cities that are riddled with materialism and governed by greed, are you faithful representatives of my Son? The days of the Colossians are long past. It's your turn now. How are you doing?@
    If you wrote a truthful letter of reply, what would it say?
 

Father, though sometimes I am too much a part of my surroundings to really notice, please help me to see clearly enough to know how I need to change to be different in the ways you want me to, Amen.
 

~Stuart Briscoe~