This past Sunday morning following worship, I was outside the church, enjoying time visiting with folks. Nothing strange there. I’ve come to understand that’s part of what we do as a church family (and I love it!). I got into a conversation with a young lady who has been visiting the past couple of weeks. I asked her if she had any questions and she said she had one. I prepared myself to wax eloquent on predestination or infant baptism.

Instead, this was her question:  Why do you call the church people ‘saints’? After I answered her question (keep reading for the answer), I began thinking that some of you might have the same question. What seems natural to me, since I’ve addressed church members that way for years, might feel unnatural or wrong to you. Perhaps the term brings to mind the veneration of saints or praying to saints.Or, closer to home, maybe it makes you uncomfortable because you, like me, know all the ways our thoughts, words, and deeds are anything but saintly or holy.

So, why use the term? Two reasons really. First, it is biblical. In several of Paul’s letters, he addresses his words to the “saints” (Romans, 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2). In perhaps the most well-known verse in the epistle of Jude, we are told of the need “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (ver. 3). And in John’s Revelation, incense is used as a picture of the “prayers of the saints” (5:8, 8:3).

The second reason I use the term is as a means to encourage you. A recent conversation told to me by one of my daughters illustrates this. She wrote:

“Last tonight at Ryan’s house one of his roommates was like “do you ever wonder if you’ll ever be called a saint by Pastor Jon again cause sometimes I go to church after a bad week and I just really need to be convicted and called a saint ya know”

I call you saints because I know life is hard and you have bad weeks (or days or months or years). Sometimes that is because of external circumstances. Sometimes that’s because of our inner struggle with sin and temptation. And often we grow weary. And often we fail. And in the midst of the barrage of all that life and our own hearts throw at us, the enemy comes with his vile accusations. “How could God love someone like you who commits the same sin over and over?” “You’re a hypocrite!” “There is no way you could be a child of God because you’re such a failure.”

And so I call you saints to remind you that, while our sin and failure and weakness are real, there is a greater reality. And that reality is that you are not your own but that you belong body and soul, in life and in death to your faithful Savior Jesus Christ. And that Jesus has fully paid for all your sins with His precious blood and that in doing so He has set you free from the dominion of the devil. And that He protects you so well that not a single hair can fall from your Head unless He wills it. And that because of Jesus, everything is working together for your salvation, a salvation that is secure and that is already beginning to transform us as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (This is a paraphrase of the great question #1 of the Heidelberg Catechism.)

That’s part of what it means to be a saint. And if God calls you that, then by all means, so shall I.