Meditation for Monday
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God. Ephesians 2:19
Some years ago a young man with whom I worked was on his way to a citizenship hearing. He was originally a stranger and foreigner from Central America and had been living in Canada for several years. He had found in Canada a land of greater freedom and opportunities than the poor and troubled circumstances of the land of his birth. He had spent some time studying our country’s history and government system, and was confident he could answer all the questions he would be asked. I wished him well. When he returned from the hearing with a big smile on his face, I shook his hand and greeted him as ‘my fellow Canadian’. He was truly proud of his new citizenship and very pleased to be welcomed in such a way. We too have been given a citizenship into a new and better country. We are no longer strangers and foreigners.
We are also fellow-citizens with all of the other Christians, including those who are now in the Glory. We share all of the blessings, the honours, and the responsibilities of being part of the same heavenly land. We are one with all of the blood-washed saints.
But Paul also reminds us of an even more intimate relationship, that of the family. As part of the household, we share those elements of life that apply to brothers and sisters, those who are near and dear, those with whom we eat and work, play and share on a personal level. The fractured world of Christendom offers little in the way of illustration of this relationship. But God’s Assembly provides us with this place of which Paul speaks, this household of God. In God’s Assembly, we can interact and share, we can exercise our gifts and participate, we can communicate, we can take part in those things that relate to the household of which we have been made a part.
In all of the blessings into which God has brought you, treasure that of being in His household most highly. In His Assembly, we fellowship with Himself and each other. -Jim MacIntosh