Geoff Thomas

Christians are members of God's household. They were once foreigners and aliens. They had no family and no home, but now they belong. They're in God's household, not as temporary visitors or guests but as members of the family. They are no longer alone in the universe, a tiny speck clinging briefly to a planet in the solar system on the edge of a vast galaxy which itself is one of a million million others. They have a home for ever; a Father who says, ‘I can't stop loving you’ and many brothers and sisters who would lay down their lives for them.

So where is loneliness? It is, of course, a terrible feeling, maybe the thought of loneliness is even worse. Edith Dain, a Scottish pastor's daughter who went to India as a missionary in 1935, finally arrived in Lakhnadon after the long sea voyage. She wrote this verse in her diary on a Sunday evening nine days after arriving in the town, when all the initial excitement had died down, ‘No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ Then she added these words. ‘This is the verse given me today, for it has been a bad day. After worship and Sunday School a great tidal wave of homesickness broke over me and I went under. Went to my room and cried as though my heart would break. I longed to see my mother and father. Five years seems a long time to wait. Even as I write the tears are falling to the pages. Yet Lord it is thy perfect will and I would not have it otherwise. Lord, give me grace and strength not to show this weakness before other people.’ He did. She did overcome her loneliness by the grace of God. Edith, in fact, was never to see her parents again. The following year her mother died and her father a year later and it was not until 1946, because of the war, that Edith could return to Scotland. She found some words of Amy Carmichael helpful: ‘God always answers us in the deeps and never in the shallows of our soul. In hours of confusion, to remember this can help.’ God always answers us in the deeps of loneliness. Maybe he will bring a brother or sister into our lives to deliver us from that fiery dart of despair.

What is the church? It is God's home. By the new birth Christians become members of God's household. We are of course God's citizens under the protection of a wise, loving and powerful ruler. That is a great status, but there must be a certain formality about relationships with your fellow citizens even if you live in a village. The New Testament adds to the city image (which stresses order and protection and identity) that of a family. Everyone in a family gets to have a key to the front door. You don't have to ask for permission to enter a home if you live there. You have access to those people at any time. The church is the family of faith. By the new birth we have all become the children of God. We can all come into the presence of our Father; he has made himself accessible to us and promised us his provision, and his fatherly admonitions. A family has a certain affection and it gives family members support and loving counsel.

But we are not to claim that the mark of the Christian family is that it is ‘warm'n'fuzzy’ in its relationships. The essence of Christian family life is not that it has a touchy-feely life together. When a husband comes home from work a wife doesn't hurry to hug him and say, ‘And how is the most wonderful, terrific husband in the world today? I hope the men in work appreciate all you do for them as we do, don't we kids? I was just calling a few of my friends this afternoon and telling them what a marvellous husband I have.’ Any husband who came home to that would think his wife was having a nervous breakdown, or that she had just crashed the car. The purpose of a home is not to bolster all the family's self-esteem and self-fulfilment in an atmosphere of narcissism. Jacuzzi families are not Christian families. A Christian home is not some hot tub designed to keep all its members in a state of perpetual bliss but a place where the values of work and modesty and self-sacrifice and patience are instilled in all the family - eternal values, judgement-day values. The family does this by continually turning to the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A family holds its members accountable for their behaviour. It guides them in righteousness and encourages them in repentance. It supports the weak and channels the energies of the strong into wise paths. Parents will try to help their children in whatever ways they can, setting up a business, or purchasing a home for themselves. A family acts like that in an atmosphere of loving support and acceptance. It is a strong, holy love.

In the household of faith you can probe and exhort one another because there is a sense of accountability which family members have to one another. The crime and imprisonment of a father is going to pull down around him the whole life of the family. So it is in a church. When pastors fall the whole congregation is devastated. So every family has certain requirements of its members because you are all living together in such a little space. A Christian family lives by God's book. Boyfriends may not stay overnight in a daughter's bedroom. Music can't be played so loudly that all the family has to hear it. There are dress codes in certain businesses and restaurants and public functions, and no one yells, ‘Legalism!’ at such institutions. If you stop attending the meetings of the Rotary Club they will inquire and then throw you out if you aren't ill, and no one yells, ‘Heavy shepherding!’ Organisations have rules, and those who apply to them know what is expected of them, but let a church exercise some simple rules and they can get threatened with litigation, or they're called ‘Fascists!’ What are sermons on holy living if the church doesn't back them up by action? They are empty words. The church is God's own family.