WHEN WE READ the book of Acts, we may marvel at how the Holy Spirit was so active in knitting people together. On the day of Pentecost, after the Spirit had come upon the disciples, Peter stood and preached the gospel to a large group of Jews who had come to Jerusalem for the feast. As Luke describes it, when Peter finished by accusing them of having crucified the Messiah, “they were cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37, NIV). I think we’re meant to understand that the crowd’s reaction was itself a work of the Holy Spirit, and not the result of Peter’s eloquence. That day, over 3,000 Jews came to Christ as their Messiah.

Luke then describes the deep quality of fellowship that characterized the newly-born church:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

It’s a beautiful picture of what a community of believers could be like. For people like myself, growing up in the ruggedly individualistic culture of the United States, that level of commonality and fellowship seems almost unimaginable. But I say that in a cautionary way; we have to remember that Peter was preaching to people who were anything but individualists. A communal way of thinking and living wasn’t new to them — but the basis of that community was. What knit them together now was their newfound faith in Jesus as their Messiah, a commitment that challenged and replaced other loyalties.

Remember, too, that it’s not long before the idyllic picture of Acts 2 is sullied by the various theological and social problems that plagued the early church. You can see it the way Paul coaches and corrects the people to whom he writes — always with loving concern, but sometimes with exasperation.

That’s why we need to stay realistic about the challenges of church life. We can’t say, as some have joked, “I love the church; it’s the people I can’t stand.” Or as one humorous little rhyme puts it: “To dwell above with saints we love: O, won’t that be glory! But to dwell below with saints we know? Well, that’s another story.” Rather, the church is people, and people are…well, people. They’re flawed human beings even with the presence of the Holy Spirit. The church is a family, but families can be a little crazy and still get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We are the saints below. But what does that mean, really?

LETTERS IN THE ancient world typically began with three quick elements. The first two are like the “from” and “to” at the beginning of a business memo: the identity of the sender and the identity of the recipient. The third is a simple word of greeting.

As we’ve seen, the sender or author of the letter is Paul and possibly Timothy. That’s the first element. The second element could have been dispatched easily: “to the church (or churches) in Colossae.” That is, after all, how he addresses the Galatians: “to the churches in Galatia” (Gal 1:2). But he addresses the Colossians as “God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ” (Col 1:2).

He calls them “God’s holy people,” or as some would translate it, “saints.” This is similar to how he addresses the Romans: “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people” (Rom 1:7). Or the Corinthians: “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people…” (1 Cor 1:2). Or the Philippians: “To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi” (Phil 1:1). How Paul describes the Colossians is most similar to how he describes the believers in nearby Ephesus: “To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus” (Eph 1:1). If, as some believe, the letters to the Colossians and to the Ephesians were sent together, that could explain some of the similarity.

What does it mean to be “saints,” to be “God’s holy people”? At the most basic level, to be “holy” means to be different. But in Scripture, the nature and quality of that difference is always linked with the character of God. God is not like other gods, and he in turn chooses and sets apart a people who are to be like him and different from the world.

But are we? We know we’re not sinless. We’re not even sure we qualify as being among “the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ,” as Paul puts it. We’re not who we should or could be. So who among us would dare to claim sainthood? If anything, it’s the opposite; we explain away bad behavior by saying, “Well, I’m no saint.”

The teaching of the New Testament, however, is that we are already holy and yet also becoming holy. That sentence might be hopelessly paradoxical if we tried to insert a different adjective. But again, what this means is that we have been set apart by God to become more like him. It’s an ongoing journey of development and growth. And frankly, reading Paul’s letters, you get the sense that the Philippians, for example, are further down the road than the Corinthians or the Galatians!

The point is this: we, like the Colossians, are already God’s holy people by God’s initiative alone. In Christ, we have been set apart by him and for him. The saints below, ourselves included, may be odd and flawed. But we’re still saints, destined to become more saintly if we set our minds on Christ.