19 The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. 20 All the brothers and sisters here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
21 I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand.
22 If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord!
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
24 My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen
-1 Corinthians 16:19-24
I love the unity and the camaraderie that churches had with one another in the early days. It’s clear that they cared for one another and supported one another. It saddens me that today we don’t see as much inter-cooperation with our churches. For the most part, we’re content to just have our respective churches do their own thing and not really thinking or worrying about other churches in the neighborhood.
This is a good reminder that God cares about ALL of His churches, not just yours. He wants to bless and grow all the churches. As such, we need to have that kind of global vision as well when we think about the church. Yes, you’re part of your local church, but we are all together part of the larger body of Christ.
A good way for you think about this is how now in AYL we really have two main groups. We have a community at A@E and we have a community in Tenafly. The two groups can’t just care about themselves. They need to be supporting one another and lifting one another up in prayer. That’s what it means to be part of the body of Christ.
Do you have an expanded perspective of what it means to be part of God’s family, or are you just focused on only those around you?
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