Day 237

2 Chronicles 24:1-25:28, 1 Corinthians 16:5-24, Psalms 102:18-28

What we get from Paul’s letters is a good idea of what the first church was like and also a good idea about what the church should and should not be like.

Todays heading actually says that this is a “personal request” so you feel as though you can skip this bit, it is all about Paul and his needs. What it gives us though, together with the “Final greetings” is an idea of the people that were in the church and the people who led the church. There are so many random names in here, some we know, like Timothy, and some we don’t know so well, like Achaicus.

The church today is full of people that we know well and people that we don’t quite so well. Whether those people sit behind us every Sunday or whether they go to one of the other services at the church, they are all believers and members of the body of Christ to be loved as such. There are even strangers that we need to greet in the name of the Lord just as if they were regular members of the church family. That is what Paul is urging for all the random names and places mentioned here.

If I were to ask you where the church is, you may say “at the bottom of Wordsworth Street”. The church is much bigger than that though, it is all the believers, across Penrith, across Cumbria, the UK or the world. The challenge is to remember that the church really is this big and to remember that other Christians are just as important for our church as Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus were for the church in Corinth. As I write, believers in China are getting a really rough deal and that is something that we should not brush under the carpet because it is not happening in our church or our town. It is something that needs out prayer and action.

Take a while to focus on your view of the church today.