Have you ever experienced a dysfunctional relationship? According to recent statistics, more and more American families consider themselves dysfunctional, and around 80% of Americans agree that our country has long operated like a dysfunctional family. What about the church in America? Have you ever been in a difficult or dysfunctional church family? For better or for worse, family is one of the main metaphors the New Testament uses for the church. In fact, Paul addresses the church in Thessalonica as brothers and sisters over seventeen times in just his first letter. 1 Thessalonians 5 also happens to end with a series of seventeen short, rapid-fire commands that make the church a loving, functioning, welcoming and healthy family for those both inside and outside of it. We are related to our church family not legally as with our natural family but related through our union with Christ—as brothers and sisters. And so we are bound together not by a courtroom but by fellowship with one another in Christ. Let’s look at how the Bible says we should live out our identity as a church family, united in Christ and related to one another through our Father in Heaven.
