Jesus' Great Commandment for the Church
© 1989 by Dick Wulf
_________________________________________________________________________________
'This is a long chapter from an unpublished book manuscript titled The Togethers I wrote with the help of the late Rob Nelson back in the late 1980's. There is extensive biblical support that God desires corporate Christianity prioritized above individualized Christianity.
'This is a long chapter from an unpublished book manuscript titled The Togethers I wrote with the help of the late Rob Nelson back in the late 1980's. There is extensive biblical support that God desires corporate Christianity prioritized above individualized Christianity.
CHAPTER THREE
TOGETHER IN COMMUNITY
TOGETHER IN COMMUNITY
Many years ago when Russia was hostile toward Christianity and the doors were closed to the country, I heard the story of a Soviet Christian who had been placed in a prison camp because of her uncompromising faith in the Lord. For reasons known only to the Soviet authorities, this woman had been given permission to leave the camp and travel to America to visit the only family she had left in the world. The visit was to last six months. Then the woman was supposed to return to the Soviet Union.
The woman traveled eagerly to Oregon to see her relatives. Everyone assumed that the woman would apply for political asylum so she could remain in this country for good. But after six months, the woman readied herself to return to the prison camp. Her astonished relatives asked her if she understood she did not need to return to the Soviet Union. The woman replied she understood, but that she really wanted to go back. When asked why, she replied, "You have many nice things in this country. But in the camps, we have each other."
The Kingdom of God
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within (or among) you.” (Luke 17:21)
What did Jesus mean by that!?
How much have you ever considered the term “kingdom”? Since we do not live in a kingdom, it can be a word without real associations. However, we can imagine about kings and palaces and domains. When we do, do we think of a king and one subject, one citizen of the kingdom? No, that is ridiculous! If so ridiculous, why then in thinking of the kingdom of God do we first and foremost think of the individual relating to God? It is simply because our culture has no concept of “kingdom”.
The kingdom of God consists of one king and the whole citizenry. If, then, the kingdom of God consists of the king and his people and it is among them, does not the term “kingdom” in large part mean the society or community? The kingdom of God is primarily what happens between us. In the end, community will be what lasts.
It is so tempting to see kingdom as merely territory. In this respect we see the kingdom of God as the church, its buildings and the size of the church rolls. But that is not the primary thing of the kingdom of God, if important at all. The primary thing in any kingdom is the King. A good relationship with the King is the pearl of great price and worth selling all you have to possess it. In medieval days, if you did not have a protective relationship with a king, you were likely to be dead the next time someone wanted to expand his territory.
Likewise, our relationship with the King is of primary importance. But it is our relationship with the King **together**. Imagine King Arthur being happy with a Knight of the Round Table who was only concerned with his own relationship with the King. It is unthinkable. It might possibly be okay for the cupbearer, but not for the Knight. We go before the King’s Throne of Grace together. If we go selfishly or thinking only of our own family, we do not go in the manner of Jesus Christ who “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” all the way to the cross on which our very lives hang.
Next in importance, next of primary importance, not secondary importance, is our relationships with each other. Again looking at the fictional King Arthur, it is easy to imagine his concern for how members of his kingdom treated each other. All were expected to contribute to the good of all. Everyone had to put in a good day’s work for the good of the kingdom, whether that be preparing for warfare or baking bread. And King Arthur would spell out how he wanted his subjects to behave.
Let’s look at that familiar verse of Matthew 6:33, “But (instead of worrying about life) seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you.” Here is what we are to do to be rewarded by God with the necessities of life and happiness. And it must be done TOGETHER! This is an “in between” verse since modern day English hides the meaning but Victorian English did not. The King James Version accurately represents the Greek plural when it reads, “But seek YE first....”
Actually, it is quite silly to think that an isolated individual can seek a kingdom. Just the concept of kingdom brings to mind a society of people living together and doing things. Add a king, in our case “The King”, and we think of subjects living the way the king has ordered and enjoying the benefits of citizenship. Seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness must be done together and a whole lot of “together” activity is required.
In seeking the Kingdom of God, the individual has work to do when alone, the individual has responsibilities in the small group, and the group has its own work to do. If only the individual merely seeks the Kingdom in his or her private life, he or she misses the boat and God does not get what He has asked for.
Privately the individual asks God in prayer to help him or her seek the Kingdom in his or her private life. This can only focus on asking for God’s help to become ready for Kingdom living, such as having the right attitudes, knowing the Scriptures for another’s benefit at a later time, etc. The individual seeks the Kingdom through his or her own Bible study and prayer. Spiritual growth occurs in values and attitudes of the Kingdom -- things the individual adopts in his or her private prayer life, thoughts, and feelings. In this way, one individual citizen of Heaven seeks righteousness when isolated from other believers and honors the King of the Kingdom with his or her concern for the Kingdom (“thy kingdom come... “), not merely with internal holiness.
As a group member, the individual Christian asks God to help him or her seek the Kingdom and Christ’s righteousness when with other believers. The individual seeks to behave like a citizen of Heaven within the actual Kingdom, especially the small group expression of God’s society. The individual occasionally helps other group members seek Kingdom behaviors, in and outside of the group. A group member does his/her part to bring the Kingdom into being by acting like a good citizen when with other believers.
But the GROUP as a whole seeks the Kingdom and prays for help to obey as a group. The group wants to embody the essence of the Kingdom as a small society of the citizens of Heaven right then and there, as well as when physically apart from one another. The small group goes about the actual business of the Kingdom. The group implements John 13:34,35 and sees that all of its members grow more and more into God-honoring citizens of Heaven, eliminates unrighteousness within its ranks, marches against the gates of Hell, praises God, and does all of the other Togethers of Scripture. Members learn to work together, as does an orchestra, with each member doing his or her special part in the Kingdom. The group as a whole, as well as individual group members spurred on by the group, seek the Kingdom of God together. Individuals, acting like good citizens, suggest courses of action, allow others to have significant parts in the life of the group, teach what they know about the Kingdom, etc.
The group gives to God the actual society of the Kingdom, the real thing to which the two kinds of individual obedience must lead. The small group is very beautiful to God. The small group gives to the Bridegroom His church, not just a hand or a foot which is the limited contribution of the lone disciple of Christ.
In reality, there is but one Kingdom of God, but two separate expressions. There is the Kingdom down here on earth. And then there is the Kingdom in the heavenly realm which at least includes angels. Keeping in mind that we are in the earthly expression getting ready to join the heavenly expression, we must take more seriously our relationships with one another. Are they progressing toward that type of selfless relationship that we were created for after death?
Unfortunately, we emphasize “getting into” the Kingdom of God far above “being in” the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is associated with salvation, which is true but just the start. The King of the Kingdom has accepted you into citizenship and let you cross the drawbridge to enter the castle. But the real Kingdom is more than finding your own room in the mansion. It is the way of life the King wishes! The King (Jesus) and Kingdom relationships (community) should be more cherished than the castle (heaven).
Our Culture Keeps Us from Understanding God’s Kingdom Community
American culture and values are very opposite from the culture and values of the Kingdom of Heaven. In fact, seen under the microscope of biblical accuracy, our culture has given us values that makes it very, very difficult for us to live, or even want to live, in such a society as the Kingdom of God. Our very independent, self-sufficient spirits fight against the Spirit of the Kingdom who teaches and urges us to do many things TOGETHER as the King wishes.
If you believe in the sovereignty of God, then you understand that He prepared the very culture into which Jesus was born. We can then conclude that what Jesus said and did was to be interpreted by that culture which was specifically prepared by God. Looking at the Scriptures through a western or American culture and value system would make sense only if our culture and values were the same as those of Jesus’ culture. But, as already stated, our values are quite the opposite. In fact, “opposite” is not an adequate term, since our values are not merely at the opposite of the continuum.
The core value of the Mediterranean culture of Jesus’ day was honor/shame. The end goal was honor. Our American core value appears to be efficiency with production as the end goal. Not even in the same camp, are they?
The importance of this is that in understanding community, we often don’t even have a clue! For example, honorable people of the Mediterranean cultures would not even give conscious thought to our concept of privacy. They would be unwilling to leave alone the private lives of others and would expect that others would look in on their own private lives to assure the honor of the family or town. Their primary reality is that of the group, family and society - never of individualist realism. For us the nature of society is oriented toward the individual and individual achievement.
For the Mediterranean people groups, society is kinship oriented. It might not even occur to them to think of seeking the Kingdom of God is the way we conceptualize. And, since that is the culture Jesus was sent to, they are right and we are wrong quite often about what God is asking for in the pages of the Bible. The Bible is cross-cultural and should be understood from a first century Mediterranean perspective.
The kingdom of heaven is one of intensely close interpersonal relationships. What happens between us is the kingdom! The Mediterranean people would have known that. They would know it even today. We must try to grasp it!
The culture of Jesus was one of community. Those who chose the different way, the one similar to American culture, turned out to be like Judas. We had better be careful ourselves. We may be a whole lot more like Judas than any of the other eleven disciples.
The Kingdom is simply The King and His People. It is an all-encompassing society, made up of people and their relationship to the King and to each other. Jesus is the king and his disciples, you and I, are the subjects of the kingdom.
Jesus told one of the teachers of the law in Mark 12:34, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Had that man said he was traveling someplace, and Jesus replied that it was just a couple of miles away? No! The man had just agreed with Jesus that the greatest commandment was to love God and the second to love neighbor. This is “relationship talk”.
Jesus' Great Commandment for the Church
Because of our emphasis on the individual's walk with God, almost all of us have lost a whole level of meaning when we read God's Word. And because we have been misunderstanding much of what God is telling us, we have developed a style of living which is seriously out of step with His will and desires.
But more on that later. For now, we just need to keep in mind that the church is *not* a building or a program or a service. "Church" is the people of God living in relationship with Him and with one another. And we must also always remember that the PRIMARY COMMAND FOR THE CHURCH IS TO *LOVE ONE ANOTHER.*
Only by understanding the commandments Jesus gave us can we truly follow Him as a church.
The woman traveled eagerly to Oregon to see her relatives. Everyone assumed that the woman would apply for political asylum so she could remain in this country for good. But after six months, the woman readied herself to return to the prison camp. Her astonished relatives asked her if she understood she did not need to return to the Soviet Union. The woman replied she understood, but that she really wanted to go back. When asked why, she replied, "You have many nice things in this country. But in the camps, we have each other."
The Kingdom of God
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within (or among) you.” (Luke 17:21)
What did Jesus mean by that!?
How much have you ever considered the term “kingdom”? Since we do not live in a kingdom, it can be a word without real associations. However, we can imagine about kings and palaces and domains. When we do, do we think of a king and one subject, one citizen of the kingdom? No, that is ridiculous! If so ridiculous, why then in thinking of the kingdom of God do we first and foremost think of the individual relating to God? It is simply because our culture has no concept of “kingdom”.
The kingdom of God consists of one king and the whole citizenry. If, then, the kingdom of God consists of the king and his people and it is among them, does not the term “kingdom” in large part mean the society or community? The kingdom of God is primarily what happens between us. In the end, community will be what lasts.
It is so tempting to see kingdom as merely territory. In this respect we see the kingdom of God as the church, its buildings and the size of the church rolls. But that is not the primary thing of the kingdom of God, if important at all. The primary thing in any kingdom is the King. A good relationship with the King is the pearl of great price and worth selling all you have to possess it. In medieval days, if you did not have a protective relationship with a king, you were likely to be dead the next time someone wanted to expand his territory.
Likewise, our relationship with the King is of primary importance. But it is our relationship with the King **together**. Imagine King Arthur being happy with a Knight of the Round Table who was only concerned with his own relationship with the King. It is unthinkable. It might possibly be okay for the cupbearer, but not for the Knight. We go before the King’s Throne of Grace together. If we go selfishly or thinking only of our own family, we do not go in the manner of Jesus Christ who “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” all the way to the cross on which our very lives hang.
Next in importance, next of primary importance, not secondary importance, is our relationships with each other. Again looking at the fictional King Arthur, it is easy to imagine his concern for how members of his kingdom treated each other. All were expected to contribute to the good of all. Everyone had to put in a good day’s work for the good of the kingdom, whether that be preparing for warfare or baking bread. And King Arthur would spell out how he wanted his subjects to behave.
Let’s look at that familiar verse of Matthew 6:33, “But (instead of worrying about life) seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you.” Here is what we are to do to be rewarded by God with the necessities of life and happiness. And it must be done TOGETHER! This is an “in between” verse since modern day English hides the meaning but Victorian English did not. The King James Version accurately represents the Greek plural when it reads, “But seek YE first....”
Actually, it is quite silly to think that an isolated individual can seek a kingdom. Just the concept of kingdom brings to mind a society of people living together and doing things. Add a king, in our case “The King”, and we think of subjects living the way the king has ordered and enjoying the benefits of citizenship. Seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness must be done together and a whole lot of “together” activity is required.
In seeking the Kingdom of God, the individual has work to do when alone, the individual has responsibilities in the small group, and the group has its own work to do. If only the individual merely seeks the Kingdom in his or her private life, he or she misses the boat and God does not get what He has asked for.
Privately the individual asks God in prayer to help him or her seek the Kingdom in his or her private life. This can only focus on asking for God’s help to become ready for Kingdom living, such as having the right attitudes, knowing the Scriptures for another’s benefit at a later time, etc. The individual seeks the Kingdom through his or her own Bible study and prayer. Spiritual growth occurs in values and attitudes of the Kingdom -- things the individual adopts in his or her private prayer life, thoughts, and feelings. In this way, one individual citizen of Heaven seeks righteousness when isolated from other believers and honors the King of the Kingdom with his or her concern for the Kingdom (“thy kingdom come... “), not merely with internal holiness.
As a group member, the individual Christian asks God to help him or her seek the Kingdom and Christ’s righteousness when with other believers. The individual seeks to behave like a citizen of Heaven within the actual Kingdom, especially the small group expression of God’s society. The individual occasionally helps other group members seek Kingdom behaviors, in and outside of the group. A group member does his/her part to bring the Kingdom into being by acting like a good citizen when with other believers.
But the GROUP as a whole seeks the Kingdom and prays for help to obey as a group. The group wants to embody the essence of the Kingdom as a small society of the citizens of Heaven right then and there, as well as when physically apart from one another. The small group goes about the actual business of the Kingdom. The group implements John 13:34,35 and sees that all of its members grow more and more into God-honoring citizens of Heaven, eliminates unrighteousness within its ranks, marches against the gates of Hell, praises God, and does all of the other Togethers of Scripture. Members learn to work together, as does an orchestra, with each member doing his or her special part in the Kingdom. The group as a whole, as well as individual group members spurred on by the group, seek the Kingdom of God together. Individuals, acting like good citizens, suggest courses of action, allow others to have significant parts in the life of the group, teach what they know about the Kingdom, etc.
The group gives to God the actual society of the Kingdom, the real thing to which the two kinds of individual obedience must lead. The small group is very beautiful to God. The small group gives to the Bridegroom His church, not just a hand or a foot which is the limited contribution of the lone disciple of Christ.
In reality, there is but one Kingdom of God, but two separate expressions. There is the Kingdom down here on earth. And then there is the Kingdom in the heavenly realm which at least includes angels. Keeping in mind that we are in the earthly expression getting ready to join the heavenly expression, we must take more seriously our relationships with one another. Are they progressing toward that type of selfless relationship that we were created for after death?
Unfortunately, we emphasize “getting into” the Kingdom of God far above “being in” the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is associated with salvation, which is true but just the start. The King of the Kingdom has accepted you into citizenship and let you cross the drawbridge to enter the castle. But the real Kingdom is more than finding your own room in the mansion. It is the way of life the King wishes! The King (Jesus) and Kingdom relationships (community) should be more cherished than the castle (heaven).
Our Culture Keeps Us from Understanding God’s Kingdom Community
American culture and values are very opposite from the culture and values of the Kingdom of Heaven. In fact, seen under the microscope of biblical accuracy, our culture has given us values that makes it very, very difficult for us to live, or even want to live, in such a society as the Kingdom of God. Our very independent, self-sufficient spirits fight against the Spirit of the Kingdom who teaches and urges us to do many things TOGETHER as the King wishes.
If you believe in the sovereignty of God, then you understand that He prepared the very culture into which Jesus was born. We can then conclude that what Jesus said and did was to be interpreted by that culture which was specifically prepared by God. Looking at the Scriptures through a western or American culture and value system would make sense only if our culture and values were the same as those of Jesus’ culture. But, as already stated, our values are quite the opposite. In fact, “opposite” is not an adequate term, since our values are not merely at the opposite of the continuum.
The core value of the Mediterranean culture of Jesus’ day was honor/shame. The end goal was honor. Our American core value appears to be efficiency with production as the end goal. Not even in the same camp, are they?
The importance of this is that in understanding community, we often don’t even have a clue! For example, honorable people of the Mediterranean cultures would not even give conscious thought to our concept of privacy. They would be unwilling to leave alone the private lives of others and would expect that others would look in on their own private lives to assure the honor of the family or town. Their primary reality is that of the group, family and society - never of individualist realism. For us the nature of society is oriented toward the individual and individual achievement.
For the Mediterranean people groups, society is kinship oriented. It might not even occur to them to think of seeking the Kingdom of God is the way we conceptualize. And, since that is the culture Jesus was sent to, they are right and we are wrong quite often about what God is asking for in the pages of the Bible. The Bible is cross-cultural and should be understood from a first century Mediterranean perspective.
The kingdom of heaven is one of intensely close interpersonal relationships. What happens between us is the kingdom! The Mediterranean people would have known that. They would know it even today. We must try to grasp it!
The culture of Jesus was one of community. Those who chose the different way, the one similar to American culture, turned out to be like Judas. We had better be careful ourselves. We may be a whole lot more like Judas than any of the other eleven disciples.
The Kingdom is simply The King and His People. It is an all-encompassing society, made up of people and their relationship to the King and to each other. Jesus is the king and his disciples, you and I, are the subjects of the kingdom.
Jesus told one of the teachers of the law in Mark 12:34, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Had that man said he was traveling someplace, and Jesus replied that it was just a couple of miles away? No! The man had just agreed with Jesus that the greatest commandment was to love God and the second to love neighbor. This is “relationship talk”.
Jesus' Great Commandment for the Church
Because of our emphasis on the individual's walk with God, almost all of us have lost a whole level of meaning when we read God's Word. And because we have been misunderstanding much of what God is telling us, we have developed a style of living which is seriously out of step with His will and desires.
But more on that later. For now, we just need to keep in mind that the church is *not* a building or a program or a service. "Church" is the people of God living in relationship with Him and with one another. And we must also always remember that the PRIMARY COMMAND FOR THE CHURCH IS TO *LOVE ONE ANOTHER.*
Only by understanding the commandments Jesus gave us can we truly follow Him as a church.
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.
Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:29-31) |
These commandments are primarily for individuals to obey, although they have implications for the church as a whole as well. But Jesus did not stop with these commandments. He later added a third commandment, a new one. It was uniquely different. It was a commandment for the church, for all of us together. In John 13:34-35, Jesus said,
"A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have
loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another." |
Notice there is no way for a single individual to "love one another." The finest Christian on earth cannot obey this commandment. This is a command for a *group* to implement. The church is "called-out" to love one another in a new and very radical way, a way that can be implemented by no group except those who, together, are disciples of Jesus Christ. As individual Christians, we have the responsibility to love God and our neighbors. As church members, we have the additional responsibility to love other church members in a supernaturally powerful way.
True church membership means commitment to the people of the church. We'll say it again: THE PRIMARY COMMANDMENT FOR THE CHURCH IS TO *LOVE ONE ANOTHER.* Other considerations such as church program, church building, and commitment to the pastor are secondary. The secret to our power is found in Jesus' words, "Love one another."
"A NEW COMMANDMENT I GIVE YOU: LOVE ONE ANOTHER"
It will be most helpful to analyze Jesus' new command for the church found in John 13:34-35. Take a look at the command with the Greek emphasis made clearer.
True church membership means commitment to the people of the church. We'll say it again: THE PRIMARY COMMANDMENT FOR THE CHURCH IS TO *LOVE ONE ANOTHER.* Other considerations such as church program, church building, and commitment to the pastor are secondary. The secret to our power is found in Jesus' words, "Love one another."
"A NEW COMMANDMENT I GIVE YOU: LOVE ONE ANOTHER"
It will be most helpful to analyze Jesus' new command for the church found in John 13:34-35. Take a look at the command with the Greek emphasis made clearer.
"A NEW commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have
loved you, so YOU MUST love one another. All men will know that you are MY disciples if you LOVE one another." |
A NEW COMMANDMENT: The most emphasized word in the first sentence of this commandment for Christians gathered together is "new." Jesus really wanted us to know that this commandment was NEW! It was new because it was not possible before the Lord's substitutionary death.
There are two main words used in the New Testament for "new." One word means "new" in quality, what we might call "new and improved." The other word means what we would call "brand new."
The word used here tells us that Jesus meant that this new commandment was new in quality. The Greek word used does not mean "brand new." The Jews of the Old Testament period were also to love one another. But the church's love was to be a new, improved kind. A greatly superior innovation in the way of loving others was becoming available through Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
COMMANDMENT: The word "commandment" is also emphasized in the Greek, but less so than the word "new". It is important for us to remember that a commandment is not just a suggestion. Jesus was not telling His disciples "a good idea from God." He was about to communicate an EXPECTATION!
I GIVE YOU: This commandment is a gift from Jesus. His gift is something good for us! Christian fellowship and community are gifts which can bring out more faith, obedience, and love for God in all of us. Only through fellowship and community can the church fully obey this commandment. Even more importantly, community and fellowship bring even more glory and praise to God.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER: To understand the command "love one another," we must understand the difference between two Greek words for our English word "love." The two main verbs in the Greek for love are *agapao* and *phileo*. Agape love is self-denial for God and for others. Phileo love is an affection, often involving a shared interest. It conveys the idea of friendship. But this is not the commandment. The commandment is not to be friendly to one another, although friendliness will most often be a part of agapao. We are commanded to be **more than friendly** with one another in the church.
The word used in the commandment for the church is agapao, indicating that we are commanded to give sacrificially of ourselves for each others' sakes. Agape love is unselfish, outgoing affection or tenderness for another without expecting anything in return. It seeks the highest good for others and does not consider itself. It requires an act of the will as well as an inclination of the heart.
This great commandment for the church to love one another cannot possibly be met in the coffee time between worship and Sunday School. It requires us to be involved in each others' lives on much more than a superficial level. The command for agape love cannot be obeyed adequately in Bible studies. It requires more commitment and more time. It requires community, most likely in small groups that meet together regularly for a host of things that are not limited to Bible study and prayer.
ONE ANOTHER: The primary focus of our love is the church. It is a "back and forth" kind of love. It is the love among us that Jesus commands and later promises to be the sign of His disciples.
AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, SO YOU MUST LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
AS I HAVE LOVED YOU: How has Jesus loved us? By laying down His life, in total self-denial for our best interest. Jesus did not give the minimum. If we love as He did, we will not give the minimum either. It was quite costly for Him to leave heaven. And Jesus spent His time, almost all of it, with people. Ultimately, Jesus' love for us led to His torture and death. We are commanded to precisely that kind of love. We are not called to an easy life!
When we seriously consider the command to love in Jesus' way, we must understand that we are called to give the maximum. We do not want to just give Jesus the minimum. Our minimum is not acceptable to God. He is on the throne, not us. The Israelites tried many different times to give the minimum, either in sacrificing defective animals or by putting on a show of obedience without really treating people properly. God was so displeased that He refused to listen to their prayers. (cf. Amos 5:21-24.)
In obeying this great commandment to the church, we must give God more than correct doctrinal understanding. It is possible to deceptively quiet our consciences by reminding ourselves that our doctrines are sound. Talking about doctrine is easy. It is far more difficult to love one another as Jesus has loved us.
The Apostle Paul warned us, "Watch your life and doctrine closely." (I Tim 4:16) Note that our life is mentioned first, suggesting that how we live is the first issue. As church members, we are expected to hold to the doctrines of our church or denomination. But, even more importantly, we are to love one another. Paul makes it very clear in I Corinthians 13:1-3:
There are two main words used in the New Testament for "new." One word means "new" in quality, what we might call "new and improved." The other word means what we would call "brand new."
The word used here tells us that Jesus meant that this new commandment was new in quality. The Greek word used does not mean "brand new." The Jews of the Old Testament period were also to love one another. But the church's love was to be a new, improved kind. A greatly superior innovation in the way of loving others was becoming available through Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
COMMANDMENT: The word "commandment" is also emphasized in the Greek, but less so than the word "new". It is important for us to remember that a commandment is not just a suggestion. Jesus was not telling His disciples "a good idea from God." He was about to communicate an EXPECTATION!
I GIVE YOU: This commandment is a gift from Jesus. His gift is something good for us! Christian fellowship and community are gifts which can bring out more faith, obedience, and love for God in all of us. Only through fellowship and community can the church fully obey this commandment. Even more importantly, community and fellowship bring even more glory and praise to God.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER: To understand the command "love one another," we must understand the difference between two Greek words for our English word "love." The two main verbs in the Greek for love are *agapao* and *phileo*. Agape love is self-denial for God and for others. Phileo love is an affection, often involving a shared interest. It conveys the idea of friendship. But this is not the commandment. The commandment is not to be friendly to one another, although friendliness will most often be a part of agapao. We are commanded to be **more than friendly** with one another in the church.
The word used in the commandment for the church is agapao, indicating that we are commanded to give sacrificially of ourselves for each others' sakes. Agape love is unselfish, outgoing affection or tenderness for another without expecting anything in return. It seeks the highest good for others and does not consider itself. It requires an act of the will as well as an inclination of the heart.
This great commandment for the church to love one another cannot possibly be met in the coffee time between worship and Sunday School. It requires us to be involved in each others' lives on much more than a superficial level. The command for agape love cannot be obeyed adequately in Bible studies. It requires more commitment and more time. It requires community, most likely in small groups that meet together regularly for a host of things that are not limited to Bible study and prayer.
ONE ANOTHER: The primary focus of our love is the church. It is a "back and forth" kind of love. It is the love among us that Jesus commands and later promises to be the sign of His disciples.
AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, SO YOU MUST LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
AS I HAVE LOVED YOU: How has Jesus loved us? By laying down His life, in total self-denial for our best interest. Jesus did not give the minimum. If we love as He did, we will not give the minimum either. It was quite costly for Him to leave heaven. And Jesus spent His time, almost all of it, with people. Ultimately, Jesus' love for us led to His torture and death. We are commanded to precisely that kind of love. We are not called to an easy life!
When we seriously consider the command to love in Jesus' way, we must understand that we are called to give the maximum. We do not want to just give Jesus the minimum. Our minimum is not acceptable to God. He is on the throne, not us. The Israelites tried many different times to give the minimum, either in sacrificing defective animals or by putting on a show of obedience without really treating people properly. God was so displeased that He refused to listen to their prayers. (cf. Amos 5:21-24.)
In obeying this great commandment to the church, we must give God more than correct doctrinal understanding. It is possible to deceptively quiet our consciences by reminding ourselves that our doctrines are sound. Talking about doctrine is easy. It is far more difficult to love one another as Jesus has loved us.
The Apostle Paul warned us, "Watch your life and doctrine closely." (I Tim 4:16) Note that our life is mentioned first, suggesting that how we live is the first issue. As church members, we are expected to hold to the doctrines of our church or denomination. But, even more importantly, we are to love one another. Paul makes it very clear in I Corinthians 13:1-3:
If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am
only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. |
God expects more from us than exciting church programs (which mainly benefit us). When we truly understand what He did for us because of His self-sacrificing love, we should desire more than anything else to glorify Him by loving one another, as He has asked and commanded.
YOU MUST: The words translated as "you must" receive the maximum emphasis in the Greek. The command says "you must" with great emphasis. We must sit up and take notice. The church *must* be more than a friendly place. Then you and I can be more of what God wants us to be and enjoy more of what He wants us to experience.
"ALL MEN WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES"
ALL MEN: The words "all men" are emphasized above all other words except "my" and "love" in this last sentence of the great commandment for the church. The emphasis serves to identify Christian love within the church as the great sign to the world, both to Christians and nonbelievers. Everyone will be able to distinguish that we belong to Jesus if we love one another.
KNOW: There are 6 main Greek words for our one word "know" in English. It is important for us to understand which one is used here and also what concepts are inadequate for understanding our Lord's statement.
"All men will know" does NOT mean: (a) all men will know adequately; (b) all men will know accurately through intimacy; (c) all men will know through study and logic; (d) all men will know intellectually or through mere observation; or (e) all men will know through discrimination, evaluation or insight.
Instead of these kinds of knowing, the Greek word used by the Holy Spirit here means "knowledge through experience." That's remarkable! I hope you realize how much of a difference that makes. All men will know that we are Christ's disciples because they will perceive this through their personal experience with us. They will not know because of love shown *to* them. Instead, it is through their contacts with us as people that non-Christians will experience our Christian love for one another firsthand. Non-Christians should have their lives touched by our love for one another, (not necessarily for them.)
Let me illustrate it for you. Suppose I get mad at my neighbor and speak very rudely to him across the fence. I apologize a couple of times, but he still will not speak to me. Then one night at my small Christian community group I mention the problem. As a result, two of my Christian friends from the group visit my neighbor in person. They explain that they are dear friends of mine and love me enough to want my friendship with my neighbor restored. They go on to tell my neighbor that, just like them, I am a sinner for whom Christ died and that I am desperately trying to curb my hot temper. They explain that our small group of believers is helping me with this problem and holding me accountable for personal change. Then they ask my neighbor to give me another chance and accept the apologies I have offered in the past.
This is an example of how my non-Christian neighbor can know, by firsthand experience, that we are Christ's disciples. He would not mistake us for any other group of people, for no other group treats sin in the way Christians do. He could not think we follow anyone other than Jesus. (This case also shows obedience to the commands to confess sins to one another and to carry one another's burdens.)
YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES: The above example illustrates what the word "know" means in this great commandment for the church. It also clarifies how we should be identified with Christ by our love for one another. Note that it takes more than friendliness or simple goodness to distinguish us from other virtuous or moral people.
The Greek word for "disciple" means a pupil or learner. If we are pupils of Jesus, we will be learning things about loving one another that we could learn from no one else. Our unique knowledge and practice of love will mark us as disciples of Jesus. People will know that we could belong to no other.
"IF YOU ***LOVE*** ONE ANOTHER"
IF: Note that being recognized by the world as belonging to Jesus is not automatic. This little word "if" is really a big word. All men will know, if.... Something must follow. What marks us as Jesus' disciples is our self sacrificing love for one another.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER: This brings me to the task of defining the radical nature of Christian love for one another. It is critical that we see what makes our love stand out so much that our lives *together* are intimately identified with Jesus.
The kind of love that has the power to turn heads is to be the same kind of love that Jesus shows us. The most startling thing about Jesus' love is how he treats us as sinful human beings.
YOU MUST: The words translated as "you must" receive the maximum emphasis in the Greek. The command says "you must" with great emphasis. We must sit up and take notice. The church *must* be more than a friendly place. Then you and I can be more of what God wants us to be and enjoy more of what He wants us to experience.
"ALL MEN WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES"
ALL MEN: The words "all men" are emphasized above all other words except "my" and "love" in this last sentence of the great commandment for the church. The emphasis serves to identify Christian love within the church as the great sign to the world, both to Christians and nonbelievers. Everyone will be able to distinguish that we belong to Jesus if we love one another.
KNOW: There are 6 main Greek words for our one word "know" in English. It is important for us to understand which one is used here and also what concepts are inadequate for understanding our Lord's statement.
"All men will know" does NOT mean: (a) all men will know adequately; (b) all men will know accurately through intimacy; (c) all men will know through study and logic; (d) all men will know intellectually or through mere observation; or (e) all men will know through discrimination, evaluation or insight.
Instead of these kinds of knowing, the Greek word used by the Holy Spirit here means "knowledge through experience." That's remarkable! I hope you realize how much of a difference that makes. All men will know that we are Christ's disciples because they will perceive this through their personal experience with us. They will not know because of love shown *to* them. Instead, it is through their contacts with us as people that non-Christians will experience our Christian love for one another firsthand. Non-Christians should have their lives touched by our love for one another, (not necessarily for them.)
Let me illustrate it for you. Suppose I get mad at my neighbor and speak very rudely to him across the fence. I apologize a couple of times, but he still will not speak to me. Then one night at my small Christian community group I mention the problem. As a result, two of my Christian friends from the group visit my neighbor in person. They explain that they are dear friends of mine and love me enough to want my friendship with my neighbor restored. They go on to tell my neighbor that, just like them, I am a sinner for whom Christ died and that I am desperately trying to curb my hot temper. They explain that our small group of believers is helping me with this problem and holding me accountable for personal change. Then they ask my neighbor to give me another chance and accept the apologies I have offered in the past.
This is an example of how my non-Christian neighbor can know, by firsthand experience, that we are Christ's disciples. He would not mistake us for any other group of people, for no other group treats sin in the way Christians do. He could not think we follow anyone other than Jesus. (This case also shows obedience to the commands to confess sins to one another and to carry one another's burdens.)
YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES: The above example illustrates what the word "know" means in this great commandment for the church. It also clarifies how we should be identified with Christ by our love for one another. Note that it takes more than friendliness or simple goodness to distinguish us from other virtuous or moral people.
The Greek word for "disciple" means a pupil or learner. If we are pupils of Jesus, we will be learning things about loving one another that we could learn from no one else. Our unique knowledge and practice of love will mark us as disciples of Jesus. People will know that we could belong to no other.
"IF YOU ***LOVE*** ONE ANOTHER"
IF: Note that being recognized by the world as belonging to Jesus is not automatic. This little word "if" is really a big word. All men will know, if.... Something must follow. What marks us as Jesus' disciples is our self sacrificing love for one another.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER: This brings me to the task of defining the radical nature of Christian love for one another. It is critical that we see what makes our love stand out so much that our lives *together* are intimately identified with Jesus.
The kind of love that has the power to turn heads is to be the same kind of love that Jesus shows us. The most startling thing about Jesus' love is how he treats us as sinful human beings.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ
died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8) |
The key ingredient in Jesus' selfless love to us is grace. We do not merit or deserve His love, but He gave it to us anyway. And we are to give the same sort of love to one another in just the same way; "As I have loved you, so you must love one another." Although we are saved through our faith in Jesus Christ, we still sin and hurt one another. We really do not deserve sacrificial love from other Christians. But when, despite our shortcomings and sins, we sacrificially love one another, anyway, the world will notice.
We should be able to forgive one another "seventy times seven" (Matthew 18:22) and continue to act upon our love for one another because of our unique understanding of sin. We Christians believe two things about sin that the world basically rejects. (1) We believe all people are sinful and cannot be perfect in and of themselves. New Age thinking and many age-old religions believe that human beings can become perfect and eventually achieve the status of gods. (2) We also believe that God, through Jesus, has stepped in and taken the punishment for the believer's sin. There is nothing we can do to remove our own sin. We enter into a right relationship with God through our faith in Jesus Christ, including our trust that He died in our place. We cannot "earn" our salvation through works. We can only receive what God freely gives to us. Our salvation is a gift, God's grace to us.
I believe that the love we are to show each other, the kind of love that will mark us as disciples of Jesus, is graceful ("grace-full") love. It will be a sacrificial love that we do not deserve from one another. The actual practice of love as it relates to sin is the sign to the world that we are disciples of Jesus Christ. Our "grace-full" love to one another is to be a copy of God's loving forgiveness to us.
Grace recognizes that every person is helplessly trapped in sin and incapable of winning God's favor or pleasing Him. I see grace as an attitude. Love is that attitude of grace in action. So agape love is self-denial for another's best interest delivered with an attitude of grace, recognizing sin and dealing with it firmly without judgment.
Graceful love can be illustrated by the command of Colossians 3:13 for Christian congregational fellowship and small group community. Colossians 3:13 orders, "Bear with each other and forgive...." It is as if God is saying to us, "Just put up with one another rather than getting so upset. You are all sinful and will make hurt one another over and over again. So do not have your feelings on your sleeves like the pagans who believe that people can be perfect. Instead, just bear with each other and automatically forgive. Exercise humility. You too sin. Love the person, hate the sin. Forgive the person. Eliminate the sin through graceful love."
Non-Christians occasionally overlook things. And they can be very loving, in the general sense of the word. But only rarely do they try to fight sin rather than sinners. That is why our particular kind of love, love that fits with our doctrine of salvation by faith as a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9), is a sure sign that we follow Christ.
Unfortunately, what the world usually sees marking us as Christians is not this kind of love. Sometimes they see a kind of love they can duplicate. Therefore, they are unimpressed. At other times we display to the watching world just the opposite of this Christlike love. We judge each other. We do not lay down our lives for each other. We hold each other forever accountable for our sins, as if they had not been paid for already by Christ, or as if we ourselves never sinned or made mistakes.
Sometimes the most visible sign to outsiders is our legalism. We have rules for everything. We do not stop where Scripture stops. We carelessly substitute subcultural ways and norms for this Christlike love. We make going to Sunday school our sign that we are Christians. Or we use our churchy language around nonbelievers. To be sure, this identifies us as religious people, but not as Christ's disciples. Jesus was absolutely right when He said, "All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another." Anything less is not sufficient.
I wonder if our lack of self-sacrificing love for one another is why so many people deride Jesus or are just "not interested." Maybe the church will be held accountable for the world's indifference to our Lord. Maybe our love for one another doesn't stand out as uniquely powerful and supernatural. Maybe our love is so invisible that non-believers simply cannot admire (or even respect) the Master we say we follow.
It takes all of the obedience we can muster to keep from turning Christianity into a pop culture. Excitement, hype, programs, listening to Christian radio and watching Christian television, magnets on refrigerators, bumper stickers -- these are all things that we think somehow set us apart. And they do. But they set us apart as a subculture, in principle not much different to a watching world than a service club or a league of enthusiastic bowlers.
Surface signs of our faith aren't necessarily wrong. But you and I have to be very careful not to substitute cute slogans and good-natured visual displays of our faith for the high and costly love to which we have been called. The sign of our faith is, and will always be, obedience to the will of God. We are to be marked by our love of God, our love for our neighbors, and our love for one another within our congregational fellowships and small group communities.
We Have More Than Adequate Help
The love expected from us as we walk together in fellowship and community, that unselfish expenditure of ourselves for each other, is powered by the Holy Spirit. The commandment to love one another is a new, improved commandment -- a new type of love we can offer because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. If we live up to our calling, all of us together will love in such radical ways that the world will sit up and notice.
Empowered as we are with the indwelling Holy Spirit, we singly and together have power to love in ways that those without His power cannot. In one sense, this is easy -- the Holy Spirit provides the power. In another way, it's difficult. In order to live by the Spirit, we have to put the things of God above every other consideration, including our selfish desires. We have to deny ourselves.
God's People in Relationship
Put simply, the church consists of God's people called out to self sacrificing, loving relationships with God and with one another. The **obedient, successful** church transforms that call into a practical, here and now reality. It obeys the New Commandment. We cannot stress too strongly that the church is *not* simply "God's people," but "God's people IN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM AND WITH ONE ANOTHER!" WHAT HAPPENS BETWEEN US IS THE CHURCH! Without meaningful relationships between believers (who, obviously, have individual relationships with God), there simply is no effective church.
As we go along, it will become more and more obvious that small groups are no longer an option for the obedient church or the obedient church member. Much of what we are called to do as Christians is simply not possible without small community groups. But Bible study and prayer groups are not enough. Group Bible study and prayer are a portion of a healthy small group community, but only a part. To be "doers of the Word" (James 1:22), the biblical small group community must do more than study and pray. You can easily do church, but you cannot be a church without small groups that go beyond Bible study to Bible obedience in community.
The first priority for Christians gathered must be the development of worshipful, obedient relationships with God, and agape love relationships with one another. An obedient church will go beyond that; God calls the church to work and to spiritual battle. But a church must have meaningful and significant relationships at it's core or it is not a "church" at all.
Programs, buildings, services, sermons, Sunday school -- all the things we have come to call "church" -- are secondary, derivative things. Without the core of Christian interrelationships (the real church), such things have very little value. Of course, it is quite possible to carry on with programs, services and Bible studies long after the core, the real church, has vanished.
Some people find it very sad to see a church building unused and boarded up. But how much sadder it is to see a church building filled to capacity, while at the same time the real "church" -- God's people in relationship -- has vanished into an impersonal crowd of believers who have essentially nothing to do with one another's "real" lives. How much sadder it is when programs, entertainment, activities, and teaching-without-doing form a shell around an empty place where a church once was. Such an organization is a shell, an un-church. It can even look "successful." An egg can be emptied of its contents and decorated quite beautifully. But to a starving individual, such an egg is worse than useless. It once held nourishment. Now it is merely an ornament.
First Things First
What happens between us is the church. First things first.
Pictures of the Church
We are used to thinking of the pictures the Bible gives us to define our individual relationships with the Lord. God is described as our father, our master, our redeemer, our friend. But there are other pictures in the Bible which describe our corporate relationship with God. The words are familiar-- family, bride, army, body, people of God. But we seldom give much thought to what these words mean. We might sing about being in the family of God. Our children might sing about being in the Lord's Army. But we have idealized these words which describe the church's relationship with God. We have lost the everyday, nuts and bolts meaning of the words.
What does it mean, in practical terms, to be in the family of God? What does it mean to be part of the Body of Christ? How should the Bride of Christ be preparing herself? These are not questions we are supposed to ask Jesus in heaven. God has given us these words, these pictures or descriptions of our plural relationship with Him, to give us practical help right now. We are to take these words just as seriously as we take the words "son," "servant," or "friend."
The next five sections of this chapter will help us to see that the church is meant to function in ways distinctly different than a loose collection of individuals would function. God means for us to be very aware of our connections and responsibilities to one another as well as our connections and responsibilities to Him.
The Family of God
Imagine being in a family of at least fifty adults and their children. Every single member of this family cares deeply about you as a person. They are all friendly and available to serve you when you have a need. They all share their time, their willing hands, and their tools to help you with a repair job. They share their possessions as you have need, as any good family would. They would help you financially if you became unemployed and help you find a new job. They give advice to assist you with the important decisions in your life. They stick by you during difficult and trying circumstances.
It is quite possible for every church to be such a family! Today we use the term "family of God" the same way an advertising agency uses slogans to convince us that something is more important or desirable than it really is. But God actually does expect the church to live up to its role as the family of God.
Most church members merely get a weekly worship service or two, plus a Sunday school class and a church social thrown in once in a while. They also get limited acquaintanceship with several people who seem pleasant to be around, plus a great deal of Bible knowledge. This is fine for a start, but it is not the family atmosphere God desires for His church.
As a member of a congregation, you should be able to expect more than what most people now get from church. Under the leadership of your pastor, you and the other members of the church can start to live in obedience to the instructions of the Scriptures for the church. Of course, you and your church friends will have to give yourselves to your church and make your help available to others. Responsible members of any good family pitch in and help one another. But you'd be surprised what just fifty people can get done for God, if everyone will work together. This will mean some self-denial of comforts, pleasures and possible recreations, but not total denial. That's the way a family should be. We don't always get our own way. We look out for one another.
It's so easy to get caught up in our own individual lives that we actually cut ourselves off from the privileges of a good family. Let's say you're looking for a job. If you do all the work of looking by yourself, you're going to be unaware of some of the opportunities. But if you ask ten friends to help you look for job openings, you multiply your contact with the job market several fold. If your friends ask ten of their friends to be watching for jobs, the information at your disposal increases all the more. The secular world calls this concept "networking." But in a very real sense, helping others (and having them help you) is what good families and good neighbors are all about. There are great advantages in being involved in a group that operates as a family.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if Christians in a church really met one another's needs? Wouldn't it be great if every Christian knew there was always someone available to talk to about problems, to give comfort, to give real help about pressing problems, or to pray? Wouldn't it be quite a cause to celebrate if we could totally eliminate loneliness from our churches?
Churches must start to "scratch where people itch" before we can begin to reach our rapidly deteriorating society. All kinds of Christians and non-Christians are desperate for a family. God wants the church to be a family. But if the church abdicates its responsibility to be a family, people will look elsewhere.
Every church should work toward being a family. But to do so, each fellowship will have to do more than simply *call* itself a family. "Family" should not be used as a hype term to try to excite people about routine church programs. True family involves work, risk, and time. Church leaders need to help the people in their congregations carefully count the cost of being a part of a real church family. But leaders should also help Christians to see the great benefits of being in a genuine church family.
The Bride of Christ
The biblical picture of the preparing and waiting Bride of Jesus Christ shows us another facet of the church as something of great benefit to our lives. This powerful picture shows us something beautiful, striking, moral, graceful and wonderful -- the very qualities we think of when we imagine a bride.
The church is to be like a bride for the Son of God. As such, she is to be faithful and pure. In living for the bridegroom, the church wants to please Him. She wants to give Him what He wants. The church is to desire only those pure and holy things of God.
This is not possible for us as individuals. We are each infected with sin and imperfection. Our thoughts and actions are contaminated. We cannot individually be as a bride to the Lord.
If we are independent and go off on our own, we are not properly connected to the preparing and waiting Bride. We cannot live an autonomous life and still prepare to be wed to Jesus Christ. If we want to be a part of the preparation, we each must be closely interwoven with the betrothed, which is the church.
The Bride's holy qualities are to be sought by the church. Working together, members of a church can do all that is necessary to please Christ. By implementing the instructions of the Bible for Christians in fellowship and community, the church moves toward holiness. (Part Two provides some initial thinking about God's commands for the church and ways to obey those desires of our Lord.)
A great deal of the Bible speaks to individual obedience. But that obedience is seldom unconnected to others. Individual obedience always finds its significance in the obedience of the whole people of God. When Elijah complained of being the only obedient Israelite alive, God quickly corrected him and pointed out that there were seven thousand others.
Whether in the Old Testament or New, notable individual believers focused on corporate righteousness. When Joseph was alone in Egypt, he did not have the choice of corporate holiness. But he kept himself holy for his God because he never forgot his family identity. Daniel obeyed with his friends as an active part of his holiness. He knew that his own righteousness apart from that of his brothers in the faith would not be pleasing enough to God. In the same way, our individual righteousness finds its true beauty when combined with the corporate obedience of our church.
The Lord commanded both Israel (Leviticus 11:45) and the church (1 Peter 1:16) to "Be holy, because I am holy." If this command is seen as a command solely to the individual, then each of us should be unconcerned about the destructive sins of other believers as long as we are living upright lives. But that is incorrect! The Old Testament prophets called the whole nation to righteousness. Such passages as 1 Corinthians 5 make it clear that sin in the church is serious business. If some in my church are still not living a holy life, then God will not get His heart's desire. The Bride is to be set apart; she is to be holy.
Individual obedience is extensively addressed by pastors and Christian authors. Unfortunately, obedience *within* a group or obedience *as* a group is seldom mentioned. Preparing a holy Bride for Jesus Christ requires more than preparing individuals. Individual obedience must lead to each member's obedience in the group. Then the group must obey. Preparing the Bride for the wedding of the Lamb (Rev 19:7) must have three dimensions -- individual obedience, individual obedience within the context of the group, and whole group obedience.
The Army of God
As we mentioned before, the church is at war as the army of God. We are out to win victories for God by battling evil wherever it may be found. We are to be on a search-and-destroy mission, fighting evil and saving people at the very gates of hell.
Unfortunately, the tendency to focus exclusively on an individualistic Christian lifestyle has a deadly grip on most believers. "Me-Christianity" is deadly to the church and its power against hell. The self-centered walk of faith greatly limits the power of God's church to resist evil and, more importantly, fight it.
Evil is too ugly and Satan with his demon hordes too strong for us to fight alone very often. Each of us is a soldier. But a soldier isolated from the main army is soon dead or captured. Many soldiers working together make up the fighting force of God. To be effective in spiritual battle usually requires a group of soldiers assaulting a stronghold of sin together.
We search for evil inside of ourselves, in our church, and in the world. We are to search for evil together. When looking inside of ourselves, evil is sometimes hard to see. Evil is usually too hard to battle alone. We need each other to battle against the evil we find.
Jesus told about the good Samaritan. The parable tells us that we should each individually stop for people who are in trouble. But the story of the good Samaritan isn't confined to individual battles against evil. When I stop for someone in need, I might need to refer him or her to someone else in my fellowship who has the particular skills to be of adequate help. Furthermore, imagine what 300 "good Samaritans" in a church could do together for their city, as well as for one another. The whole church should be stopping for the needs that our world faces.
What would have happened in the 1950's and 1960's if the church had worked together to address the problem of abortion? People were crossing borders for illegal and risky abortions. It should have been obvious to Christians that those without the Holy Spirit would eventually want to have those abortions performed safely in this country without the danger of death or disease. If the church had given our nation some righteous alternatives to abortion back then, perhaps abortion would never have been legalized. Even if we had not prevented legalized abortion, by working together we certainly would have prevented the deaths of many, many unborn children. That would have been a victory for God only possible by our collective obedience as God's army.
Sometimes it is the Christian small group that must function as an army. Like a squad assigned to take one hill for the sake of the war, Christians in small group community have an on-going need to battle the sins that each member commits or faces. And the small group can carry out an assault on some injustice or rectify the disaster of some evil.
For example, Galatians 6:2 commands us to carry one another's burdens. By the context, we can tell this passage is talking about sin. Galatians is telling us that we must bear the burden, the consequences and sorrow, of each other's wrongdoing. For example, I remember once saying something carelessly and hurting my wife's feelings. After I had apologized and done all I could think of to make it right, she was still angry and unable to trust me. Thankfully, my small group community stepped in to make sure that Jean understood that I did not have the evil motives she had heard. They also made sure that I changed so that my wife would not be hurt again, at least in the same way over the same issue.
No individual ever won a war. Neither can the war against sin cannot be won by individuals acting alone. Training individual soldiers for Christ is not enough. We need to learn the skills of the individual soldier. But we also must learn to coordinate with others while on patrol. And our squad must understand how it fits in with the rest of the army to get the job done.
The Body of Christ
The church is also called the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. The church is the visible representation of Jesus on earth. The Body has different parts, and we each are only a part. The whole representation of Jesus to Earth's citizens requires all of us. (1 Corinthians 12)
It would be difficult to imagine a stronger analogy for the corporate nature of the church than the body. Separated from the whole, any part of the body is useless and somehow unnatural. Even the thought of seeing an arm or a leg cut from the rest of a body makes us uneasy. The idea of our hand telling us, "I'm going outside to pull some weeds," strikes us as ludicrous. But when a Christian tells us of some solo spiritual mission he or she is about to undertake, we think nothing of it.
Despite the fact that the Bible teaches that the church body must function as a whole to be effective, we have emphasized the importance of certain "parts." Those who can preach, teach, sing or play the piano rarely have a problem finding a ministry within the church. Those who have other, less-prized, gifts or skills often have a much more difficult time. Such Christians are often given tasks or plugged into programs for which they are not really suited. Even sadder, sometimes those without the highly prized gifts or skills end up trying to be something they are not; for instance, there is something very poignant about someone with very ordinary musical skills wanting to be the soloist in the choir.
Our individualistic perspective has robbed us of the true meaning of the words "Body of Christ." Each of us has a vital ministry to perform. But our ministry is closely linked with the ministry of others in our church. And together, our various ministries blend into one ministry. Instead of accepting our role or place, we try to become something we are not. If I am, figuratively, a little finger, I should not be trying to turn myself into a hand. I should be looking out for other fingers, a thumb, a palm, and a wrist. Then, together, we can grasp a problem.
Over and over we have been presented with applications from Scripture which relate only to the individual. That perspective is much too narrow. When Jesus miraculously fed the five thousand (John 6), an individual, a small boy, shared his five loaves and two fish. That lesson we have learned. But we have never learned to see this incident as a group (the disciples) ministering to the hungry in a coordinated effort. That lesson has been lost.
The People of God
We should be able to forgive one another "seventy times seven" (Matthew 18:22) and continue to act upon our love for one another because of our unique understanding of sin. We Christians believe two things about sin that the world basically rejects. (1) We believe all people are sinful and cannot be perfect in and of themselves. New Age thinking and many age-old religions believe that human beings can become perfect and eventually achieve the status of gods. (2) We also believe that God, through Jesus, has stepped in and taken the punishment for the believer's sin. There is nothing we can do to remove our own sin. We enter into a right relationship with God through our faith in Jesus Christ, including our trust that He died in our place. We cannot "earn" our salvation through works. We can only receive what God freely gives to us. Our salvation is a gift, God's grace to us.
I believe that the love we are to show each other, the kind of love that will mark us as disciples of Jesus, is graceful ("grace-full") love. It will be a sacrificial love that we do not deserve from one another. The actual practice of love as it relates to sin is the sign to the world that we are disciples of Jesus Christ. Our "grace-full" love to one another is to be a copy of God's loving forgiveness to us.
Grace recognizes that every person is helplessly trapped in sin and incapable of winning God's favor or pleasing Him. I see grace as an attitude. Love is that attitude of grace in action. So agape love is self-denial for another's best interest delivered with an attitude of grace, recognizing sin and dealing with it firmly without judgment.
Graceful love can be illustrated by the command of Colossians 3:13 for Christian congregational fellowship and small group community. Colossians 3:13 orders, "Bear with each other and forgive...." It is as if God is saying to us, "Just put up with one another rather than getting so upset. You are all sinful and will make hurt one another over and over again. So do not have your feelings on your sleeves like the pagans who believe that people can be perfect. Instead, just bear with each other and automatically forgive. Exercise humility. You too sin. Love the person, hate the sin. Forgive the person. Eliminate the sin through graceful love."
Non-Christians occasionally overlook things. And they can be very loving, in the general sense of the word. But only rarely do they try to fight sin rather than sinners. That is why our particular kind of love, love that fits with our doctrine of salvation by faith as a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9), is a sure sign that we follow Christ.
Unfortunately, what the world usually sees marking us as Christians is not this kind of love. Sometimes they see a kind of love they can duplicate. Therefore, they are unimpressed. At other times we display to the watching world just the opposite of this Christlike love. We judge each other. We do not lay down our lives for each other. We hold each other forever accountable for our sins, as if they had not been paid for already by Christ, or as if we ourselves never sinned or made mistakes.
Sometimes the most visible sign to outsiders is our legalism. We have rules for everything. We do not stop where Scripture stops. We carelessly substitute subcultural ways and norms for this Christlike love. We make going to Sunday school our sign that we are Christians. Or we use our churchy language around nonbelievers. To be sure, this identifies us as religious people, but not as Christ's disciples. Jesus was absolutely right when He said, "All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another." Anything less is not sufficient.
I wonder if our lack of self-sacrificing love for one another is why so many people deride Jesus or are just "not interested." Maybe the church will be held accountable for the world's indifference to our Lord. Maybe our love for one another doesn't stand out as uniquely powerful and supernatural. Maybe our love is so invisible that non-believers simply cannot admire (or even respect) the Master we say we follow.
It takes all of the obedience we can muster to keep from turning Christianity into a pop culture. Excitement, hype, programs, listening to Christian radio and watching Christian television, magnets on refrigerators, bumper stickers -- these are all things that we think somehow set us apart. And they do. But they set us apart as a subculture, in principle not much different to a watching world than a service club or a league of enthusiastic bowlers.
Surface signs of our faith aren't necessarily wrong. But you and I have to be very careful not to substitute cute slogans and good-natured visual displays of our faith for the high and costly love to which we have been called. The sign of our faith is, and will always be, obedience to the will of God. We are to be marked by our love of God, our love for our neighbors, and our love for one another within our congregational fellowships and small group communities.
We Have More Than Adequate Help
The love expected from us as we walk together in fellowship and community, that unselfish expenditure of ourselves for each other, is powered by the Holy Spirit. The commandment to love one another is a new, improved commandment -- a new type of love we can offer because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. If we live up to our calling, all of us together will love in such radical ways that the world will sit up and notice.
Empowered as we are with the indwelling Holy Spirit, we singly and together have power to love in ways that those without His power cannot. In one sense, this is easy -- the Holy Spirit provides the power. In another way, it's difficult. In order to live by the Spirit, we have to put the things of God above every other consideration, including our selfish desires. We have to deny ourselves.
God's People in Relationship
Put simply, the church consists of God's people called out to self sacrificing, loving relationships with God and with one another. The **obedient, successful** church transforms that call into a practical, here and now reality. It obeys the New Commandment. We cannot stress too strongly that the church is *not* simply "God's people," but "God's people IN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM AND WITH ONE ANOTHER!" WHAT HAPPENS BETWEEN US IS THE CHURCH! Without meaningful relationships between believers (who, obviously, have individual relationships with God), there simply is no effective church.
As we go along, it will become more and more obvious that small groups are no longer an option for the obedient church or the obedient church member. Much of what we are called to do as Christians is simply not possible without small community groups. But Bible study and prayer groups are not enough. Group Bible study and prayer are a portion of a healthy small group community, but only a part. To be "doers of the Word" (James 1:22), the biblical small group community must do more than study and pray. You can easily do church, but you cannot be a church without small groups that go beyond Bible study to Bible obedience in community.
The first priority for Christians gathered must be the development of worshipful, obedient relationships with God, and agape love relationships with one another. An obedient church will go beyond that; God calls the church to work and to spiritual battle. But a church must have meaningful and significant relationships at it's core or it is not a "church" at all.
Programs, buildings, services, sermons, Sunday school -- all the things we have come to call "church" -- are secondary, derivative things. Without the core of Christian interrelationships (the real church), such things have very little value. Of course, it is quite possible to carry on with programs, services and Bible studies long after the core, the real church, has vanished.
Some people find it very sad to see a church building unused and boarded up. But how much sadder it is to see a church building filled to capacity, while at the same time the real "church" -- God's people in relationship -- has vanished into an impersonal crowd of believers who have essentially nothing to do with one another's "real" lives. How much sadder it is when programs, entertainment, activities, and teaching-without-doing form a shell around an empty place where a church once was. Such an organization is a shell, an un-church. It can even look "successful." An egg can be emptied of its contents and decorated quite beautifully. But to a starving individual, such an egg is worse than useless. It once held nourishment. Now it is merely an ornament.
First Things First
What happens between us is the church. First things first.
Pictures of the Church
We are used to thinking of the pictures the Bible gives us to define our individual relationships with the Lord. God is described as our father, our master, our redeemer, our friend. But there are other pictures in the Bible which describe our corporate relationship with God. The words are familiar-- family, bride, army, body, people of God. But we seldom give much thought to what these words mean. We might sing about being in the family of God. Our children might sing about being in the Lord's Army. But we have idealized these words which describe the church's relationship with God. We have lost the everyday, nuts and bolts meaning of the words.
What does it mean, in practical terms, to be in the family of God? What does it mean to be part of the Body of Christ? How should the Bride of Christ be preparing herself? These are not questions we are supposed to ask Jesus in heaven. God has given us these words, these pictures or descriptions of our plural relationship with Him, to give us practical help right now. We are to take these words just as seriously as we take the words "son," "servant," or "friend."
The next five sections of this chapter will help us to see that the church is meant to function in ways distinctly different than a loose collection of individuals would function. God means for us to be very aware of our connections and responsibilities to one another as well as our connections and responsibilities to Him.
The Family of God
Imagine being in a family of at least fifty adults and their children. Every single member of this family cares deeply about you as a person. They are all friendly and available to serve you when you have a need. They all share their time, their willing hands, and their tools to help you with a repair job. They share their possessions as you have need, as any good family would. They would help you financially if you became unemployed and help you find a new job. They give advice to assist you with the important decisions in your life. They stick by you during difficult and trying circumstances.
It is quite possible for every church to be such a family! Today we use the term "family of God" the same way an advertising agency uses slogans to convince us that something is more important or desirable than it really is. But God actually does expect the church to live up to its role as the family of God.
Most church members merely get a weekly worship service or two, plus a Sunday school class and a church social thrown in once in a while. They also get limited acquaintanceship with several people who seem pleasant to be around, plus a great deal of Bible knowledge. This is fine for a start, but it is not the family atmosphere God desires for His church.
As a member of a congregation, you should be able to expect more than what most people now get from church. Under the leadership of your pastor, you and the other members of the church can start to live in obedience to the instructions of the Scriptures for the church. Of course, you and your church friends will have to give yourselves to your church and make your help available to others. Responsible members of any good family pitch in and help one another. But you'd be surprised what just fifty people can get done for God, if everyone will work together. This will mean some self-denial of comforts, pleasures and possible recreations, but not total denial. That's the way a family should be. We don't always get our own way. We look out for one another.
It's so easy to get caught up in our own individual lives that we actually cut ourselves off from the privileges of a good family. Let's say you're looking for a job. If you do all the work of looking by yourself, you're going to be unaware of some of the opportunities. But if you ask ten friends to help you look for job openings, you multiply your contact with the job market several fold. If your friends ask ten of their friends to be watching for jobs, the information at your disposal increases all the more. The secular world calls this concept "networking." But in a very real sense, helping others (and having them help you) is what good families and good neighbors are all about. There are great advantages in being involved in a group that operates as a family.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if Christians in a church really met one another's needs? Wouldn't it be great if every Christian knew there was always someone available to talk to about problems, to give comfort, to give real help about pressing problems, or to pray? Wouldn't it be quite a cause to celebrate if we could totally eliminate loneliness from our churches?
Churches must start to "scratch where people itch" before we can begin to reach our rapidly deteriorating society. All kinds of Christians and non-Christians are desperate for a family. God wants the church to be a family. But if the church abdicates its responsibility to be a family, people will look elsewhere.
Every church should work toward being a family. But to do so, each fellowship will have to do more than simply *call* itself a family. "Family" should not be used as a hype term to try to excite people about routine church programs. True family involves work, risk, and time. Church leaders need to help the people in their congregations carefully count the cost of being a part of a real church family. But leaders should also help Christians to see the great benefits of being in a genuine church family.
The Bride of Christ
The biblical picture of the preparing and waiting Bride of Jesus Christ shows us another facet of the church as something of great benefit to our lives. This powerful picture shows us something beautiful, striking, moral, graceful and wonderful -- the very qualities we think of when we imagine a bride.
The church is to be like a bride for the Son of God. As such, she is to be faithful and pure. In living for the bridegroom, the church wants to please Him. She wants to give Him what He wants. The church is to desire only those pure and holy things of God.
This is not possible for us as individuals. We are each infected with sin and imperfection. Our thoughts and actions are contaminated. We cannot individually be as a bride to the Lord.
If we are independent and go off on our own, we are not properly connected to the preparing and waiting Bride. We cannot live an autonomous life and still prepare to be wed to Jesus Christ. If we want to be a part of the preparation, we each must be closely interwoven with the betrothed, which is the church.
The Bride's holy qualities are to be sought by the church. Working together, members of a church can do all that is necessary to please Christ. By implementing the instructions of the Bible for Christians in fellowship and community, the church moves toward holiness. (Part Two provides some initial thinking about God's commands for the church and ways to obey those desires of our Lord.)
A great deal of the Bible speaks to individual obedience. But that obedience is seldom unconnected to others. Individual obedience always finds its significance in the obedience of the whole people of God. When Elijah complained of being the only obedient Israelite alive, God quickly corrected him and pointed out that there were seven thousand others.
Whether in the Old Testament or New, notable individual believers focused on corporate righteousness. When Joseph was alone in Egypt, he did not have the choice of corporate holiness. But he kept himself holy for his God because he never forgot his family identity. Daniel obeyed with his friends as an active part of his holiness. He knew that his own righteousness apart from that of his brothers in the faith would not be pleasing enough to God. In the same way, our individual righteousness finds its true beauty when combined with the corporate obedience of our church.
The Lord commanded both Israel (Leviticus 11:45) and the church (1 Peter 1:16) to "Be holy, because I am holy." If this command is seen as a command solely to the individual, then each of us should be unconcerned about the destructive sins of other believers as long as we are living upright lives. But that is incorrect! The Old Testament prophets called the whole nation to righteousness. Such passages as 1 Corinthians 5 make it clear that sin in the church is serious business. If some in my church are still not living a holy life, then God will not get His heart's desire. The Bride is to be set apart; she is to be holy.
Individual obedience is extensively addressed by pastors and Christian authors. Unfortunately, obedience *within* a group or obedience *as* a group is seldom mentioned. Preparing a holy Bride for Jesus Christ requires more than preparing individuals. Individual obedience must lead to each member's obedience in the group. Then the group must obey. Preparing the Bride for the wedding of the Lamb (Rev 19:7) must have three dimensions -- individual obedience, individual obedience within the context of the group, and whole group obedience.
The Army of God
As we mentioned before, the church is at war as the army of God. We are out to win victories for God by battling evil wherever it may be found. We are to be on a search-and-destroy mission, fighting evil and saving people at the very gates of hell.
Unfortunately, the tendency to focus exclusively on an individualistic Christian lifestyle has a deadly grip on most believers. "Me-Christianity" is deadly to the church and its power against hell. The self-centered walk of faith greatly limits the power of God's church to resist evil and, more importantly, fight it.
Evil is too ugly and Satan with his demon hordes too strong for us to fight alone very often. Each of us is a soldier. But a soldier isolated from the main army is soon dead or captured. Many soldiers working together make up the fighting force of God. To be effective in spiritual battle usually requires a group of soldiers assaulting a stronghold of sin together.
We search for evil inside of ourselves, in our church, and in the world. We are to search for evil together. When looking inside of ourselves, evil is sometimes hard to see. Evil is usually too hard to battle alone. We need each other to battle against the evil we find.
Jesus told about the good Samaritan. The parable tells us that we should each individually stop for people who are in trouble. But the story of the good Samaritan isn't confined to individual battles against evil. When I stop for someone in need, I might need to refer him or her to someone else in my fellowship who has the particular skills to be of adequate help. Furthermore, imagine what 300 "good Samaritans" in a church could do together for their city, as well as for one another. The whole church should be stopping for the needs that our world faces.
What would have happened in the 1950's and 1960's if the church had worked together to address the problem of abortion? People were crossing borders for illegal and risky abortions. It should have been obvious to Christians that those without the Holy Spirit would eventually want to have those abortions performed safely in this country without the danger of death or disease. If the church had given our nation some righteous alternatives to abortion back then, perhaps abortion would never have been legalized. Even if we had not prevented legalized abortion, by working together we certainly would have prevented the deaths of many, many unborn children. That would have been a victory for God only possible by our collective obedience as God's army.
Sometimes it is the Christian small group that must function as an army. Like a squad assigned to take one hill for the sake of the war, Christians in small group community have an on-going need to battle the sins that each member commits or faces. And the small group can carry out an assault on some injustice or rectify the disaster of some evil.
For example, Galatians 6:2 commands us to carry one another's burdens. By the context, we can tell this passage is talking about sin. Galatians is telling us that we must bear the burden, the consequences and sorrow, of each other's wrongdoing. For example, I remember once saying something carelessly and hurting my wife's feelings. After I had apologized and done all I could think of to make it right, she was still angry and unable to trust me. Thankfully, my small group community stepped in to make sure that Jean understood that I did not have the evil motives she had heard. They also made sure that I changed so that my wife would not be hurt again, at least in the same way over the same issue.
No individual ever won a war. Neither can the war against sin cannot be won by individuals acting alone. Training individual soldiers for Christ is not enough. We need to learn the skills of the individual soldier. But we also must learn to coordinate with others while on patrol. And our squad must understand how it fits in with the rest of the army to get the job done.
The Body of Christ
The church is also called the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. The church is the visible representation of Jesus on earth. The Body has different parts, and we each are only a part. The whole representation of Jesus to Earth's citizens requires all of us. (1 Corinthians 12)
It would be difficult to imagine a stronger analogy for the corporate nature of the church than the body. Separated from the whole, any part of the body is useless and somehow unnatural. Even the thought of seeing an arm or a leg cut from the rest of a body makes us uneasy. The idea of our hand telling us, "I'm going outside to pull some weeds," strikes us as ludicrous. But when a Christian tells us of some solo spiritual mission he or she is about to undertake, we think nothing of it.
Despite the fact that the Bible teaches that the church body must function as a whole to be effective, we have emphasized the importance of certain "parts." Those who can preach, teach, sing or play the piano rarely have a problem finding a ministry within the church. Those who have other, less-prized, gifts or skills often have a much more difficult time. Such Christians are often given tasks or plugged into programs for which they are not really suited. Even sadder, sometimes those without the highly prized gifts or skills end up trying to be something they are not; for instance, there is something very poignant about someone with very ordinary musical skills wanting to be the soloist in the choir.
Our individualistic perspective has robbed us of the true meaning of the words "Body of Christ." Each of us has a vital ministry to perform. But our ministry is closely linked with the ministry of others in our church. And together, our various ministries blend into one ministry. Instead of accepting our role or place, we try to become something we are not. If I am, figuratively, a little finger, I should not be trying to turn myself into a hand. I should be looking out for other fingers, a thumb, a palm, and a wrist. Then, together, we can grasp a problem.
Over and over we have been presented with applications from Scripture which relate only to the individual. That perspective is much too narrow. When Jesus miraculously fed the five thousand (John 6), an individual, a small boy, shared his five loaves and two fish. That lesson we have learned. But we have never learned to see this incident as a group (the disciples) ministering to the hungry in a coordinated effort. That lesson has been lost.
The People of God
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10 |
As spiritually reborn people, we belong to the Kingdom of God and we are His people. No king would be very proud of a kingdom of one. But no matter what we say, we often act as if the Kingdom of Heaven consisted of "just you and me, Lord." As we consider what it means to be the people of God, we again see that the exclusively individualistic perspective is an omission of gigantic proportions.
1 Peter 2:9-10 emphasizes that we are not just "any" citizens of heaven. We belong to the royal priesthood. We are living within the castle walls, so to speak. And we are appointed to praise the King because, in His mercy, He has allowed us to live with Him. Before we placed our faith in Jesus Christ, we were shabby vagabonds living in the dark forests on a wretched planet. Now, we live in the light. Our identity is as the *people* of God, not merely as God's person. Seeing ourselves as God's people is noble; seeing ourselves as God's person is arrogant.
Just as a baby is born into citizenship, Christians have birthrights as citizens of heaven stationed on Outpost Earth. Our second birth gives us the right to certain privileges. The "Togethers" listed in Part Two are the birthrights of those who are twice-born.
As citizens of a free country, we would become incensed and take legal action if we were robbed of our privileges of citizenship while traveling abroad. However, as Christians we are quite ignorant of the privileges promised us in Scripture, privileges which we are to provide each other. We put very little effort toward making certain that all the citizens of heaven have the privileges of heavenly citizenship. We don't even think about having these birthrights!
These rights of heavenly citizenship are extremely important as we live under the stress of life away from our eternal home on a sin-contaminated world. These privileges of heavenly citizenship are crucial to our survival. They are critically necessary for the church's success in a pagan world.
Take for example the birthright to confess sins to one another and be healed. (James 6:16) One of the great advantages of Christ's death on the cross is to have our sins paid for and forgiven. A second advantage as a new creature in Christ is our ability to change through repentance. But defensiveness about our sins, and inability to admit them, keeps us from getting help from others in the kingdom who want us to change. Sin's power is stripped from us if we can gather together and safely confess our sinfulness without fear of condemnation from others. Then the healing interaction with God's people can begin.
Because we have been living in isolation from one another, we have allowed Satan to rob us of our rights as citizens of heaven! Satan's strategy to "isolate and destroy" has been incredibly successful in recent years because we are largely ignorant of our collective rights as citizens of heaven. We must become very aware of these birthrights! We can no longer afford to substitute lesser rights, and continue to live a comfortable but deceptive lifestyle. If we take our church membership seriously, we will want the real thing -- real kingdom living as the people of God.
Initially, the counterfeit, me-centered life is not nearly as much hard work as real, other-centered Christian living. But in the long run, the counterfeit is much more work and much less rewarding. We should work hard to ensure that all Christians receive those things that are their birthrights as citizens of heaven, collectively embodied in the "Togethers."
1 Peter 2:9-10 emphasizes that we are not just "any" citizens of heaven. We belong to the royal priesthood. We are living within the castle walls, so to speak. And we are appointed to praise the King because, in His mercy, He has allowed us to live with Him. Before we placed our faith in Jesus Christ, we were shabby vagabonds living in the dark forests on a wretched planet. Now, we live in the light. Our identity is as the *people* of God, not merely as God's person. Seeing ourselves as God's people is noble; seeing ourselves as God's person is arrogant.
Just as a baby is born into citizenship, Christians have birthrights as citizens of heaven stationed on Outpost Earth. Our second birth gives us the right to certain privileges. The "Togethers" listed in Part Two are the birthrights of those who are twice-born.
As citizens of a free country, we would become incensed and take legal action if we were robbed of our privileges of citizenship while traveling abroad. However, as Christians we are quite ignorant of the privileges promised us in Scripture, privileges which we are to provide each other. We put very little effort toward making certain that all the citizens of heaven have the privileges of heavenly citizenship. We don't even think about having these birthrights!
These rights of heavenly citizenship are extremely important as we live under the stress of life away from our eternal home on a sin-contaminated world. These privileges of heavenly citizenship are crucial to our survival. They are critically necessary for the church's success in a pagan world.
Take for example the birthright to confess sins to one another and be healed. (James 6:16) One of the great advantages of Christ's death on the cross is to have our sins paid for and forgiven. A second advantage as a new creature in Christ is our ability to change through repentance. But defensiveness about our sins, and inability to admit them, keeps us from getting help from others in the kingdom who want us to change. Sin's power is stripped from us if we can gather together and safely confess our sinfulness without fear of condemnation from others. Then the healing interaction with God's people can begin.
Because we have been living in isolation from one another, we have allowed Satan to rob us of our rights as citizens of heaven! Satan's strategy to "isolate and destroy" has been incredibly successful in recent years because we are largely ignorant of our collective rights as citizens of heaven. We must become very aware of these birthrights! We can no longer afford to substitute lesser rights, and continue to live a comfortable but deceptive lifestyle. If we take our church membership seriously, we will want the real thing -- real kingdom living as the people of God.
Initially, the counterfeit, me-centered life is not nearly as much hard work as real, other-centered Christian living. But in the long run, the counterfeit is much more work and much less rewarding. We should work hard to ensure that all Christians receive those things that are their birthrights as citizens of heaven, collectively embodied in the "Togethers."
_________________________________________________________________________________
If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team. This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through. If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at Dick@Wulf.com and let him know of your willingness to help.
_________________________________________________________________________________
If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team. This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through. If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at Dick@Wulf.com and let him know of your willingness to help.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Copyright 2012 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA