To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colosse, Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:2
Were there really two different groups of people in the Colossian Assembly? Were there some who could be called saints but not faithful brethren? Or were there some who were faithful brethren who could not be called saints? For that matter, were there possibly some who could be brethren but not saints nor faithful? I don’t think we will have any problem recognizing that in this expression, the apostle Paul is applying two separate terms to the same group of people. And these two terms describe God’s people in wonderful ways. The term saints refers to our relationship with our Lord. The term faithful brethren refers to our relationship with each other.
The Greek word for saint used in our text, and which applies to New Testament Christians, is ‘hagios’, which means ‘most holy thing’. It is very similar in meaning to the Hebrew word ‘chaciyd’, which is the term used for the Old Testament saints. Applying the term holy to us is amazing when we consider what sinners we once were before we were saved, and when we consider how far short we come of what we ought to be as Christians. God calls us saints for two reasons. The first is that He has given to us a holy standing. When He looks upon us in our position as blood-bought possessions, He sees us in the righteousness of His own Son. Someone once said there are two kinds of people in the world: there are saints and there are ain’ts. We are the saints. The second reason is that He has given to us a holy standard. We are instructed to be holy even as He is holy (Leviticus 11:44, 1 Peter 1:16). Aspiring to live our lives in the pursuit of God’s holiness should be our goal.
If being called ‘saints’ refers to our standing and our standard before God, so being called ‘faithful brethren’ refers to our relationship with our fellow saints. If we are saved, we are a part of the brotherhood. That is true regardless of whether we acknowledge or whether we enter into the fulness of that brotherhood. It is an eternal brotherhood, one into which we are forever bound. Paul could truthfully refer to the brethren in Colosse as being faithful. If He were to speak of those in one or more of our Assemblies today, he could call us brethren, but would he be able to truthfully call us faithful? I am sure that even in Colosse, there were some believers who were haphazard in their attendance at meetings and in their support of the Assembly’s Gospel efforts. I am also sure that in the Colossian Assembly were believers who disagreed with each other on matters of procedure and doctrine. Not everybody lived up to the standard of others in terms of their faithfulness to each other in caring, sharing, exhorting, ministering, and devotion to the Assembly. But they are called faithful. God appreciates the extent to which we are faithful brethren.
We are saints and we are faithful brethren. God says so. Now let us demonstrate these in our lives. – Jim MacIntosh