A Christmas Carol is the story of a mean, selfish old man named Ebenezer Scrooge who is visited by a series of ghosts come to show him how his behaviour has affected others. At one point of this supernatural education, Scrooge is led to the home of his ill-treated employee, Bob Cratchit, and, looking through the front window, observes something powerful and foreign. He sees a family marked by contentment and generosity in spite of poverty, by joy and love in spite of hardship. Looking through that window, Scrooge sees what a family can and should look like.

The closing verses of Colossians have a similar tone. As Paul extends his greetings and says his farewells, it’s as though readers are being brought to the front window of his ministry, looking in on a snapshot of the life he enjoyed. And as believers peer inside they see what a family can and should look like, that is, a church family.

SERMON MANUSCRIPT

The arrival of the Christmas season means, among other things, the reappearing of Christmas movies. It’s a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. There are also the many adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the same story told in black and white, with muppets, and with cartoon mice.

If you’re unfamiliar, A Christmas Carol is the story of a mean, selfish old man named Ebenezer Scrooge. One Christmas Eve, however, this curmudgeon is visited by a series of ghosts who, together, show him how his behaviour has affected other people. 

There’s a point in the story when Scrooge is led to the home of his ill-treated employee, Bob Cratchit, and, looking through the front window, he sees something powerful and foreign to him. He sees a family marked by contentment and generosity in spite of poverty, by joy and love in spite of hardship. Looking through that window, Scrooge sees what a family can and should look like.

The closing verses of Colossians remind me of that scene. As Paul says his farewells, it’s as though we are being brought to the front window of his ministry, looking in on a snapshot of the life he enjoyed. And as we peer inside we see what a family can and should look like. And, by family I mean, church family. In these final paragraphs we’re given a glimpse of what the body of Christ is supposed to look like and how we’re to get it there.

What the Body of Christ Can and Should Look Like

Looking through this window we catch a snapshot of Paul’s life and, by way of that snapshot, we see what the body of Christ can and should look like. We see the church at work. 

A family love

And just like Scrooge with his nose pressed against the pane, we see love all over this scene. To be more exact, we see a family love. A deep care for the well-being, growth, safety, and happiness of other members of the spiritual household. It’s all over this text.

Notice how Paul speaks about his fellow Christians (vv. 7, 9a). This is family love! And notice what Paul is doing for his brothers: he’s sending people he loves to people he loves to keep them in the loop.

Verse 7 says, “As to all my affairs, Tychicus … will bring you information” (cf. vv. 8–9). Paul loves these Colossians enough to inform them of what’s going on in his life that he “may encourage [their] hearts” (v. 8). And he wants the Colossians to pass this comfort on to other believers also (v. 15). This is a love given in spite of personal circumstances (v. 18). This is a family love.

And it’s not just Paul that loves the Colossians (vv. 10a–b, 12a–b, 13a, 14). Looking through this window we see that one of the marks that can and should characterize the body of Christ is family love. Because that’s exactly what we are—family; brothers and sisters in Christ.

that rectifies,

And if we look closer at this passage we find what this family love produces in the household of God. First, it’s a love that rectifies (v. 10). The mention of Mark is interesting because he and Paul have history (see Acts 12:25; 13:13; 15:36–40). It’s a family feud! Paul was irritated enough by flaky Mark to fight with Barnabas, the “son of encouragement.” But by the time we get to Colossians, reconciliation has started (Col 4:10). It’s a command. And if we go to the end of Paul’s life, we find even more (see 2 Tim 4:11).

Here’s the point. Do conflicts happen in families? Of course! But can family love mend conflicts? Of course! And it’s the same in the body of Christ. We see it here as we look through the window of Paul’s life. This family love heals, mends, forgives. It rectifies.

unifies,

Family love also unifies (v. 11). Speaking of Aristarchus, Mark, and Justus, Paul says, these are his only Jewish teammates. But it doesn’t matter. Paul, a Jewish Pharisee, with a team comprised of both Jew and Gentile, is writing to an assembly of Jews and Gentiles, and not only in Colossae (vv. 13, 15–16). Background and ethnicity, geographical location and size of congregation—these things and others like them bow before the uniting power of love (see 2:9–11). Family love unifies.

and edifies.

Finally, it also edifies. It equips and promotes growth among the members (vv. 7b–8, 9b). Paul wants his hearers to know and to be encouraged by what they learn. 

Epaphras is agonizing, straining in prayer for his brothers and sisters (v. 12a). To what end (v. 12b)? That they may arrive at the glorious end God has for them. That they may mature to perfection. And, while they grow, that they may experience certainty in God’s will. Can you imagine praying anything better for a family member?

And, not to be left out, Paul desires similar things (v. 17). We’re not told the nature of the ministry the Lord gave Archippus just that Paul, fuelled with a family love, is pushing this brother to be faithful to the task. Family love edifies.

I don’t know your experiences with the church. Maybe, if asked to describe the body of Christ, you’d say “cold, detached, impersonal.” Perhaps you’d say “unhealthy, controlling, or demanding.” Or maybe “unhelpful, irrelevant, and ineffective.” Some of you come from churches so small they were exhausting and unhelpfully exposing. Some come from churches so big they were impersonal and immobilizing. 

In a room this size there are surely people who are nearly done with church. You’re on the brink. You don’t see the point or how it helps. You’re convinced you can be good with God without God’s people, and your experience has only confirmed that. Maybe you’ve been hurt, disappointed, and disillusioned. You’ve seen church splits and infighting, you’ve witnessed abuses of power, irreverence, insubordination, and pride. You’ve watched people who claim to have “the best news ever” be apathetic, uninspired, and lethargic. 

We all have our baggage when it comes to the body of Christ. And, in that, we’re all standing outside with a frown on our curmudgeony faces desiring something better and sometimes doubting it exists. But in Colossians 4 we look in the window of Paul’s life and we see what church family can and should look like. It’s a place characterized by family love, a love that rectifies and unifies and edifies.

We all want to be part of something like that. And, those who belong to this church want this place to be like that. The question is, how? 

How the Body of Christ Can Look As it Should

Well, let’s look back through the window of Colossians 4. We’ve caught a glimpse of what the body of Christ can and should look like. Let’s now see how the body of Christ can look as it should. And here’s what we’re going to see: the family love that characterizes the church is fuelled by and rooted in a shared subjection to Jesus (v. 7).

Paul calls Tychicus his fellow slave in the Lord, that is, that they are both in a relationship of total obedience to their Master, Jesus Christ. 

For all we know, Paul and Tychicus had nothing else in common. Paul was an introverted dogs-lover. Tychicus, an extrovert with ten carts. Who knows! But it doesn’t matter because they could be the most different men who ever walked this earth and, still, what they had in common was powerful enough to make them family. They both served, wholeheartedly and unreservedly, the same Lord.

Add Epaphras to the mix. He likes collecting stamps and his pet fish (v. 12). The differences don’t matter when yoked to the same Christ.

And it isn’t only that they are all slaves of Jesus, but they’re also compelled by the same mission (v. 11). We labour for the same purposes under the same authority. Archippus knows what that’s like (v. 17). 

How do we move toward this example of a church characterized by an affective love for one another? We recognize that, in spite of all our differences, we are all slaves to the same resurrected Christ and sent out with the same resurrection gospel. 

As one author has said, “Being in war together may be what keeps us from being at war with each other.” We’re on the same side with the same assignment, armed with the same weapons to fight against the same enemy. And, most importantly, we answer to the same Commander. In fact, that’s really what Colossians has been about.

It opens with a call for thankfulness for Christ followed by a magnificent celebration of Christ—that he is the premier and preeminent agent, owner, and sustainer of all creation, unparalleled in his authority and through whom all things are being reconciled, including all people—Jew and Gentile. All people everywhere are invited into saving union with Christ, to mature in Christ, and to declare Christ.

It’s to this Christ that God’s people must submit, avoiding the enslaving and empty lies of this world, and, instead, enjoying, by faith alone, the freedom and fullness of life in the Son—now and forever. And, by faith, we fill our minds with Christ, striving to be more like Christ, that we may honour Christ and display Christ to those who don’t yet know Christ. It’s all about him. He’s enough. He’s sufficient. He’s done all the work. He’s glorious. He’s exalted. He’s returning. He’s filled us. He’s called us. He’s saved us. We belong to him. We work for him.

And with all of that as the backdrop, the letter closes by telling us to act like it in the household of faith. We’re all bondservant of the same Lord, slaves to the same Master, serfs to the same Christ.

He tells us to love one another (see 1 John 4:21). We’re to sacrifice for one another. Lay ourselves down for one another. Why? Because the Boss said so. Oh, and because he did that for us to give us eternal life when we deserved eternal death.

He tells us to reconcile and to forgive one another (see 3:13). We’re to rectify conflict even when it feels good to be bitter, even when we’re in the right, even when it costs us to forgive. Why? Because the Boss said so. Oh, and he forgave each of us for much worse.

He tells us to be unified (see 3:14). We’re to seek peace across our differences, ethnicities, preferences, and histories. We’re to view all those realities through the lens of our togetherness in Christ. Why? Because the Boss said so. Oh, and he died to make it possible. In a world that wants to divide everyone into their individual pods, literally assigning a score for how different, marginalized, and uniquely oppressed every person is, the family of God is to celebrate that we are united by something far more powerful, far more glorious, and far more eternal than anything that distinguishes us. 

Jesus tells us to build one another up (see 3:16). It’s not about us, it’s about others. We are to go out of our way to encourage, correct, serve, and liberate one another into service of our Lord. Why? Because the Boss said so. Oh, and he does that for us through his Spirit that indwells us. 

This is what the body of Christ can and should look like. But it fails to look this way when we forget to whom we belongs and to whom we will answer. It’s all about Christ. It’s not about us. He’s enough; we’re deficient. He’s glorious; we’re fallen. He’s powerful; we’re weak. He’s pristine; we’re sinful. He’s gracious; we’re selfish. We must look to him and submit to him to become a church that best honours him.

The only way—the only way—a church family grows into what it can and should look like, is when each of us and all of us are growing in our amazement of and submission to Jesus Christ. It has been my sincere prayer that our time in the book of Colossians has been used—and will be used—by the Lord to those ends.

 

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