-Most versions use the word 'church' here. We do know of several ‘churches’ connected with Colossae. Of course there is the one to which this letter is addressed. There was one which gathered in Philemon’s home (cf Philemon 2) - which could have been one and the same. There is the one in Laodicea to which Paul refers here. Nympha had a church meeting in her house - it is unclear whether she is mentioned specifically by Paul as the one who in fact hosts the Laodicean believers, or if hers is a completely separate church. There is also a nearby church in Hierapolis - these churches were in close proximity to one another and as best we can tell were all planted by the same person (Epaphras, as has already been noted, cf Colossians 4.13).
-But the Biblical idea of church has nothing to do with a building. When we use the word ‘church’ today we think of what? A building. So much bricks and mortar and steel. A cross and a steeple. Open the doors and you see all the people, right? But on a Sunday morning, right? Maybe a clever sign out front. Classrooms and an office and occasionally-gaudy-carpet. We talk about 'going to church', and we think about this structure where some kind of ritualized meeting takes place once a week. We think of a meeting in that building with its forms and its message and how we feel about all that, whether or not we like it or 'get something out of it'. But ‘church’ in the Greek means something entirely different. The word is ekklesia, and it means ‘that which is called out’. It refers to the people of God who He has called out of the world and gathered (assembled) together to be His people who will convey His Good News and love and blessings back to the world. Church is the people. We don’t ‘go to church’ - we gather together with the church, we belong to a church, but the church consists of its people. Paul is writing to people, to an assembly if you will, not to a building. No buildings back then - God’s people gathered together in their homes, in their cities and towns wherever they were. They were a people who knew each other and needed each other and were there for each other, they did meals and life together, they shared and celebrated and served and suffered together and labored together to spread the Good News about God’s love through Jesus to a world that desperately needed it (and still does). They were devoting themselves to the Lord AND to one another. They were... a family, brothers and sisters, a spiritual family where the ties could be even thicker than blood. And to the extent that our experience of 'church' is devoid of these kinds of relationships, we are missing out big time on what God has provided for us. And let us be perfectly clear on this point - if I am in Christ, there is a local assembly of Christ-followers that needs me, and I them. We need each other. We need each other in order to become all that God wants us to be, individually and corporately, a people who come together to help one another become more like Christ (cf Ephesians 4.16) and to celebrate and show off the breathtaking goodness of God with one another and with a dying world. Our world, our community, our neighbors need us to be that people who need one another. Let’s not settle for merely going to church - let’s be(come) the church, the assembly of people God has called us to be, that community of (un)common unity, the church in all its glory as God always intended. (And believe it or not, we’re more likely to find it in a home than in a building...)
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