The family of believers

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Galatians 6: 10)

For those Christians amongst us who live in countries where there is freedom of worship and where it is relatively easy to find and meet others who share our faith in Jesus, it’s easy to gloss over the phrase “the family of believers” and to miss the significance of Galatians 6: 10.

I’ve been going to church every week for years, where I see familiar faces who also go to church every week. In the course of my work over the years, I’ve seen people around me on a regular basis whom I know to be Christians. In an abstract, absent-minded sort of way, I’ve always been aware that we all belong to “the family of believers”, or as the English Standard Version of the Bible puts it, we all belong to the same “household of faith” (Galatians 6: 10).  But that phrase never really came alive to me till recently.

I was recently visiting a country where it is far less easy to be open about being a believer of Jesus Christ. [This is a true story, but I'm changing names and small details to avoid identifying anyone.] A few days into my visit, I met a new acquaintance through a mutual friend. We’ll call my new acquaintance ‘Anna’. Anna had been a Christian for many years, in a country which was not overly friendly towards Christians and churches. She was overjoyed to learn that I was a fellow believer. When she found out that I was interested in buying a particular type of craftwork unique to the region, to bring home as a momento of the place, she volunteered to bring me to a workshop run by a close friend of hers. When we got there, she very eagerly introduced me to her friend, the owner of the workshop, ending the introduction with a whispered “She’s a sister in Christ.”

In all my years as a Christian, no one had never made such a big deal out of my being a follower of Christ. These two people didn’t even know me. All they knew was that I belonged to the same “household of faith” that they did, and that was enough of a reason for them to be excited. That was enough of a reason for them to “do good” for me – I was touched by how hard they tried to help me find the perfect piece of craftwork to bring home.

The story doesn’t end there. Try as we did, we didn’t quite find exactly what I was looking for. I did buy something from the workshop, but Anna knew that it wasn’t what I’d been hoping to find. She dropped me off at my hotel, and we said our goodbyes as I was due to fly off early the next morning.

But the next morning, about ten minutes before I was due to get on a bus that would take me to the airport, there was a knock on my hotel room door. It was Anna, holding a gift for me which was tightly bundled up. It was a piece of craftwork from her own home. It had been made by her dear aunt who had brought her up, and who had recently passed away. From our earlier conversations, Anna knew it to be exactly what I was looking for. I refused to take it. I told her that I couldn’t take something so precious from her. “You can’t give that to me,” I told her.

Her reply was: “I could, for a sister, who will love it.”

I can’t describe how my heart melted when I heard that. I think that has to count as one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. She insisted that I take it, and because the bus to the airport wasn’t going to wait for me any longer and I couldn’t stand around protesting any longer, I took it.

I didn’t even see what it was till I got home. It’s beautiful. I do love it. And I love it even more for what it meant to the person who gave it. Every time I look at it, I remember how it came to sit in a corner of my room.

This was someone who barely knew me. We’d only met about three or four days earlier. She did it because I was “a sister in Christ”.

For Anna and her friend, meeting someone new from the “household of faith” was in itself something exciting and worth celebrating. Even though they didn’t know me, they were eager to do all they could to bless me, because  I was their sister in Christ, a “family member” in God’s big family.

We who live in free countries, where we have the opportunity to meet fellow believers openly and routinely, take so many things for granted. We’ve lost that excitement. We forget that it’s no small thing to be a member of God’s family. The Bible tells us in John 5: 24, “[Jesus said], ‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.’”

When we accept Jesus as our Saviour, we “cross over from death to life”. We’re headed to heaven. And every one we meet in our lives who is of “the household of faith” is headed to the same destination. That’s worth more than a lacklustre “Oh, are you also a Christian?” when we meet them. That’s worth celebrating.

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The photograph above, taken in 2009, is of a craft workshop in Ironbridge, UK. It is not the craft workshop written about in this post.