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Fellow Citizens and Members

             Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, (Ephesians 2:19)

          Chances are that when you were growing up, you recognized rules in your household or in your community you didn’t like. You may have looked forward to moving into your own place where you would set the rules, even if the one rule were “there are no rules.”

                    We don’t tend to like rules, but they are necessary. Decades ago, a school located near a busy highway observed that the children tended to stay close to the building during recess. When the school erected a fence to separate its property from the highway, the children ran and played. The “rule” of the fence made them feel safer.

Among the rules with which you grew up, some were clearly stated, while others were simply understood. Some of what you understood to be rules probably weren’t. The same is true now. Some of your rules are stated, and some are assumed to be understood. And when I was growing up, we had guests who were expected to abide by some of the rules, but not all of them. There were even rules that they had to obey that I didn’t.

The foreigners, strangers, fellow citizens with God’s people, and members of God’s household all have rules, responsibilities, and rights, and they aren’t always the same. At the foundation of those rules is a simple one. We aren’t to forget our identity, whether it is as a foreigner and stranger or a fellow citizen and member of His household. The rules we are to follow are those set by God for those in your role within the household, as interpreted by God, not by the foreigners and strangers. Sometimes, those rules differ even among those of His household, depending on their maturity, capabilities, individual needs, and level of understanding. 

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