This may sound shocking, but biblically, living for God means living for his church. When God calls us to himself, he calls us to his church, to a purpose bigger than ourselves. There is a glory in the presence of Jesus Christ, seen when believers come together, that will necessarily go missing in a strictly individual pursuit of God. When the gospel gets turned from a community-centered faith to an individual-centered faith (“Jesus would have died for me if I had been the only one!”), we eclipse much of its power and meaning.
But because we live in a me-first culture, we often try to individualize corporate promises. We tend to have more concert about what the Bible says to us individually than about how it calls us to live in community. Too easily we forget that we are called to be part of Christ’s body, the church.
Peter tells us that, corporately, we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” Why? Not for any individual purpose, but for a corporate one that honors 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).
All of us need to lay a new groundwork if we want an authentic faith based on a God-centered life. Rather than the believer being the sun around whom God, the church, and the world revolve, God becomes the sun around which the believer revolves. This means the believer becomes willing to suffer – even to be persecuted – and to lay down his or her life to build God’s kingdom and to serve God’s church.
What are you doing in your life right now to serve God’s church, to build God’s church, to participate in God’s church? We should be passionately devoted to the bride of Christ.
An excerpt from Authentic Faith
Great word for the church – too many church members want to be a distant cheerleader for others – they need to be engaged in their mission to the world and service to the body of Christ! Thanks for a good word!
Amen! The “delicate” balance in today’s world is also that of placing the “body above the head” as many/most of our American churches tend to do. Christ must be over all in our worship and service and disciples made in loving relationships, beginning in the home (marriage and family in God’s design and order). This precedes and strengthens the loving fellowship and relationships that are His Church. Thanks and God bless in Christ!
It’s about time someone had the courage to speak this truth publicly!!! Thank you so much for writing it. I’m exhausted with people who complain about everything wrong with the church. Some of these same individuals have benefited greatly from sacrifices made for them by other church members. But instead of being grateful, they focus on what WASN’T done. As if the church, not Jesus, was supposed to be their personal savior. What is so often forgotten is that the church was God’s idea in the first place. Also, Jesus warned believers that both wheat and tares would grow up together in the church, not to be fully identified and separated until THE JUDGMENT.
Please, whatever you do, keep writing and proclaiming the truth!!!!