-There is a new citizenship, a new national identity, one which trumps temporary earthly nationalities and ethnicities - those in Christ are now citizens of Heaven, they belong to God’s country.
-But it’s not just a new country. It’s a new family. The word here is oikeios. It refers to an oikos, a dwelling where a family dwells (think of a rather large extended family!), and the oikeios refers to those who dwell there as part of the family. This is God’s house, His home, His family, His clan, His people, into which centuries of goy were forbidden any access or part whatsoever. Fast forward to the called-out-people under this new covenant - the predominance of Gentiles in this assembly in Ephesus were now part of God’s extended family. Before, they were aliens, strangers, non-members, but now they belonged, they belonged to God’s family. forever! They had a permanent seat at the dinner table of Heaven, a place in paradise, a room with their name on it.
-And yes, it is a family... to many, their experience of ‘church’ is just a meeting, or perhaps like some kind of a business or civic club, where they spend part of their time and derive some personal benefit. Or perhaps they view it as a team, where there is some level of mutual cooperation for the furtherance of some stated goal. But these approaches all have one thing in common - whatever connectedness exists is sporadic, seasonal at best, part-time relationships which result in partial impact and incomplete transformation. But family - family is enduring, constant, loyal, rootedness, faithfulness. Family is acceptance which is unconditional. Family is warmth and love. The world is dying to see a family, desperate for more than a meeting and a creed, not compelled in the least by formal ritual and cold polite handshakes, its curiosity barely piqued by slick preachers and fancy programs and new buildings. They want real, authentic relationships with people who really care, who accept them without precondition and who will journey with them through thick and thin. They say blood is thicker than water, but ours is a family whose lifeblood is thicker still, flowing from the veins of almighty God, coursing through the lives of His children whose hearts beat to the rhythm of His Spirit. God’s household, what we call "the Church", is a forever family, with doors and hearts that are open, open to our neighbors and to the nations, ready to love and embrace any and all who would believe.
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