By: Ronald Lloyd

James, Cephas and John, to Paul’s way of thinking recorded in Galatians 2:9, “-seemed to be pillars-”.  Now that is a compliment in anyone’s language.  Loosely translated this means that they stood up as a stem supports a plant or posts hold up a porch.  While he refers to apostles, the principle extends to all saints as Peter likens the church to a stone building made of living stones, in 1 Peter 2:5.

Some years ago I visited an Indian village on Mesa Verde, a plateau, located at the northern juncture of New Mexico and Arizona.  Those buildings, or pueblos, have been standing for several hundreds of years.  From a distance the large stones are evident.  Approaching more closely smaller cobbler stones and even pebbles are found wedged between the larger stones, holding the larger stones in place.  There are no unimportant stones in a wall.  If the small, less visible stones are removed the structure is weakened as the larger stones shift to fill the void.  There are no decorative stones in the spiritual walls of the church.

When pillars in the church are identified it is not to discount the importance of less visible workers.   I’ve known brothers and sisters over the years whom I view to be pillars, standing upright and attracting notice because of their dedication to the truth.  One such comes to my mind.  Brother H. C. Ellis worships with the  Chandler Highway church in Tyler, Texas.  I’ve known him for some twenty-five years.  For that time I’ve ever found him to be available to the Lord’s work.  Many of the things he does go unnoticed.  he has for years been the chief “caretaker” of the building.  He has a business and frequently uses his office help to prepare and mail the bulletin of the church.  When the church was no longer financially able to mail the bulletin, he personally invested in the mailing of the bulletin along with Faye Barnes, his daughter, once a gain using his business time for the Lord’s work.  he strongly influenced myself, my wife and helped, in large measure, to shape the faith of our three children.  He is a pillar.

There are pillars in all local works.  Perhaps you’ve noticed some.  No doubt there are others because of the quiet nature of their work go unrecognized. 

Recognizing pillars is one of the happy consequences of knowing one another better, see 1 Thessalonians 5:11-12.  We may tend to think of knowing one another as in the corrective sense of Galatians 6:1.  This is of great value, but of equal value is the encouragement, the edification, we receive by seeing and knowing pillars.

Oh, one thing must be kept in mind, pillars do not recognize themselves for what they are because they feel they are just doing what they can, Mark 14:8.