1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker— 2 also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home:

I can’t help but feel that when somebody walks into a church there should be a sense of ‘coming home’ and a feeling of family.

For the first several hundreds of years of its existence the church met in homes. There were no formal church buildings. When Jesus spoke about building His church, He was referring to a people, not a physical edifice of some kind.

As we saw yesterday, Philemon was probably a wealthy believer who had a house large enough for the church to meet in. He gave ‘hospitality’ to the church, and to individuals (22).

Always remember that the church is not the building of brick or stone in which you may meet; the church is that community of believing people who gather inside.

But it all started in homes in the the first century.

PRAYER: Lord God, show me, please, how you might want to use my home for Kingdom purposes.