Feb 07, 2025 Finding Yourself in the Bible – Words of Grace Blog – February 7, 2025
As the staff of our church knows, I love the 1970 movie, The Cross and The Switchblade. I saw this movie so many times in my youth group that if the reel-to-reel projector ever broke down, I could have acted out the rest of it. I’ve often dropped a few lines in staff meetings.
In the movie a gang member called Israel is converted to Christ. The first time he opened the Bible he shouted to the other newly converted gang members as he turned the pages, “Hey, I’m all over this book. My name is in the Bible. Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel. I’m practically on every page.”
This week as I read again the greetings in Colossians 4:7-18, I realized that all who are in Christ can find themselves in the Bible. We may not find our names, but we find people like us all over this book.
In the greetings, the Apostle Paul endorses the men who will carry his letter to Colossae and give a report about his condition. He lists the names of the people who are with him in Rome as he waits under house arrest for his day in court. He sends his greetings to believers in two cities and mentions two of the servants of their church by name.
What do these people have in common? They are in Christ and therefore in the Body of Christ, the church. They are visibly in the congregation that gathers each Lord’s Day to hear the word. They serve the kingdom of God in some way. Some serve Paul while he is in prison. Some serve the congregations in Colossae and Laodicea. Some serve in prayer, while others teach the word. Some show hospitality. One attends to Paul’s medical conditions. Two carry his letters. One opens her house for church while another leads the church service. Many unnamed people do many unmentioned things. They are all average people who have been shown God’s grace and who profess Jesus as Lord. And they all made it into the Bible.
Making it into the Bible was never their aspiration. They just committed themselves to Christ and served his church. They were not seeking to make a name for themselves, but to exalt the name of Christ. But they found themselves in Paul’s apostolic letter which today is our Bible.
We can find ourselves in these people who are in the Bible. We are like them. Not wise, powerful, or noble, but chosen by God nonetheless (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). We who are in Christ are in his church. We are gifted in all manner of ways to offer ourselves and our service for the kingdom of God and the health of the congregation.
To do so we will need vision to see that God uses average people for his purposes. We will need wisdom to know that our greatest contribution to the kingdom of God is not our greatness, but rather our faithful obedience over a long time to the great calling to serve. And we will need the power of the Holy Spirit as new selves united to Christ. For this we pray.
I look forward to seeing you Sunday.
-Scott