December 17, 2007
Do-It-Yourself
It seems to me that in today’s church, the more we’re encouraged to personalize and individualize our relationship to God and Jesus Christ, the less accountable we become to one another. For instance, confessing and repenting privately is much more comfortable than confessing and repenting to one another. And it’s easy to justify, because everyone knows the Lord sees what is done in private. Peter tells us to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38). I can just see those in our do-it-yourself world trying to baptize themselves…at their leisure and in the comfort of their own home, of course.
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Gail;
-----I am currently reading a book by Sam Harris titled, “The End of Faith.” You may recognize Sam Harris as one of America’s big atheists, and atheism is exactly the point of view of his book. Then you may wonder why I would read such trash, but the honesty of his reasoning is compelling. Much of what he has to say about individuals and their beliefs, how they arrive at their beliefs and what they do as a result is very insightful and very true. As I continue to read through his book I realize more how God has hidden Himself from the wise of this world, even the nearly, intellectually honest. Mr. Harris’ struck down his own entire thesis on page one by stating that God’s authorship of the Bible was entirely without evidence.
-----I marvel at all of the evidence supporting God’s authorship of the Bible. From archeological to historical to prophetic, what can be seen and known in this world is replete with evidence. But how His World deals with the individual’s relationship with Jesus Christ and his relationships with all of the brethren is unequivocal evidence that the Bible was not written by man’s spirit. When a man writes a system of moral law or ethics, he pens himself in as its keeper, its guard, and the judge of its principles. Man does not author something to go out of his own control, especially when it comes to those who are not as educated, experienced, or insightful within it. These, men will brush to the sidelines and shackle as minion followers, the bumblers who would effect only degradation of their authored moral codes and ritual practices.
-----But that type of human jealousy is not found in the Bible. This is not to say that there is no provision for protecting the faith in the Word. There is. That role is given to the elders, but is then immediately limited to only what the Word expressly sets forth as elements of the faith, and only as far as the Word clearly defines them. Everything beyond that is given to what the individual has come to understand. So, as Paul puts it, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” The deeper dimensions of the faith live in individual hearts. They will sometimes more and sometimes less resemble the actualities of the matters of faith as known by God. But each of us has nothing else by which to launch into a deeper understanding of the Lord. All we can do is begin with the basic structure of faith clearly revealed in the Word and proceed from there by personal experience and meditation. And the Word gives the individual freedom to do so.
-----Yet we are not to be independent rocket shots off into space. The very Word that has called us to individual relationships with the Lord has also called us into the unity of a body, a gathering together, an agreement with one another. Though our deeper understandings must come individually, we are not called to serve ourselves. We are called to serve others, to know others, to respect them, and to sympathize with them. We are not called for individuality, but individuality is for our calling. It is not an objective, it is just a reality.
-----Most of the practices to which we have been called are affairs of community. Though we must love ourselves, the command is to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is certainly about community. We are called to be generous with one another, to teach one another, and even to sing to one another. Forgiveness is for one another, patience is also, and so is gentleness and kindness. But our entanglement with ourselves seems often to confuse us. We fail to realize that the Lord is in us individually to bring us to His Father individually, and bring from each one of us love, supply, and needs for the community. It is there, in the community, that we are validated, or found to be counterfeit. Individuality is important, but it is not the goal. And if it has become the goal, it is completely understandable why one would want to practice secretively within the community.
-----Therefore, God has made the individual to be as important as I Corinthians 12:26, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” Yet He has made the body as important as Ephesians 2:22, “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Neither the community nor the individual swallows the other up, but each has its place in God’s exhibition of love and mercy. Those who feel that their relationship with God can be practiced in a closet are either failing in their understanding of the body, or are becoming exposed for whom they are about. And moreover, their failing to participate in the community is their failure to participate in the evidence it is to God’s authorship of the Word.
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