"I Want to be a Member of the Colossian Church"

(The quotation at the beginning of this essay is so full of meaning that I have spent hours of study and writing on this single page. Think! See if it doesn’t move you in the same way.)

After reading my essay #9, “Beloved Brethren,” Sharon wrote the following note.

“I want to be a member of the Colossian church! They sound like wonderful people. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to go back in time to the purity of the first churches and meet them? I can picture their faces when I read this; how inspiring!”

This comment says something about both the Colossian church and the American church, but does it not also leave something unsaid about both? I bought a bag of apples at the supermarket and found a rotten one in it. I remembered the good apples I used to eat as a child and wished I could have a bagful of them instead. But a second thought reminded me that there were also rotten apples back then. Every season has rotten apples, both in the market and in the church. And every age and church has beautiful people who God calls the “apples of His eye” (Psa. 17:8). Don’t we all long for something more than what we have in our present life and relationships? Browning wrote, “Our reach must exceed our grasp else what is heaven for.” Sharon’s statement prompts me to make a number of comments about the church.

1. The American church, like the Colossian church, contains “saints and faithful brethren.” Paul wrote to the “saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae.” The first major thing to consider is that these saints and faithful brethren were “in Christ.” Not all church members are saints and faithful brethren in Christ. We who identify with the Colossian saints and wish to be with them will embrace Paul’s message. In this way unity is achieved—we are in Christ with the saints of all time and places. And with this understanding we discover the saints of our time. Every child of God is my brother or sister.

2. The American church, like the Colossian church, is plagued with human philosophy and deception. Paul wrote, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ ... Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking their stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by the fleshly mind” (Col. 2:8. 18). No church has ever been totally faithful; in each there have been members who were deceived by the “traditions of men.” In this way the church of different times and places are very much alike. The philosophy that deceived the Colossian church is the same philosophy that is deceiving the American church. The traditions of men, self-abasement, worship of angels, a stand on visions and inflated fleshly minds still exist. In our time the old age philosophy of the Colossians is called “New Age theology.

3. The American church, like the Colossian church, is composed of two kinds of people—the resigned and the restless. The former will live out their lives just being church members and will never understand nor experience what the Colossian saints enjoyed. The latter will be dissatisfied and will search for understanding and experience until their faith finds a resting place in Christ alone. There they will find the saints and faithful brethren they have been searching for.

4. The American church, like the post-modern, progressive church everywhere, is unlike the Colossian church in that it is far removed from Paul and his message. We have always said, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” But this is not true, as many of us service men can affirm. We lost our sweethearts and wives while we were away in the war. We changed that statement to, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder—for someone else.” And so it was with Christ and His bride. The early church began as the faithful bride of Christ, but very soon she fell for someone or something else. The American church, with the exception of the “saints and faithful brethren,” is the result of that adulterous relationship.

I am proud to announce that Sharon is my daughter who lives in Columbus, Ohio. She and I want to be examples for others who are looking for something more. Seeing our example, perhaps others will say, “I want to be a member of your church.” We shall say, “Salvation makes you a member.”