A Better Covenant

Ephesians 4:15-16

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

 

“Christ is the Body of the Church”.  I guess that could be one theme of the book of Ephesians. We just finished up this past Sunday on the book of Ephesians and if you read this book and don’t take away the high view on community you have missed what I believe the be the second most important element of the book. The first being your position in Christ. But this position frees you to now understand the corporateness of Christianity. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 12:

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

We have to understand how meatey this verse is. In other words, if you are not walking in biblical community (that isn’t equivalent to church though it could be) you are denying the very work of the Spirit. If you find biblical community troublesome you have been misguided. Paul makes it clear that we can’t even function apart from the body. That is why he uses a physical body as an analogy. We don’t see arms walking down the street! We see entire persons. And even if someone is missing a body part we look at them as not as functional as someone with all their members. And even beyond that if they have all parts and they aren’t functioning properly, the body doesn’t function properly. What comes to mind is someone with paralysis.

This is important for many reasons. The first being we live in an isolated culture where people believe they really can function without other Christians. This is a theological heresy. It is funny to see that wherever Paul went to plant a church there was always more than one convert and immediately they begin meeting together. Look at every church Paul plants and I will be batting a 1.000 on this. The second problem is we believe going to “church” fulfills this requirement. This is also false. We can go to church every Sunday and never meet one biblical requirement (1). This is my struggle with many of our modern churches. People come Sunday after Sunday and are never allowed to employ the very gifts that are used to edify the body.

How is God gracious in this work of Community? Simply put, we need one another to fulfill the imperatives He has given us to fulfill. I am lacking in many areas as a Christian. To fulfill the Great Commission is an impossible task. But is task indeed. It is given to each of us individually but immediately we recognize our inadequacy (if not then please send me a special note). To take the Gospel to the outtermost parts of the world is simply put impossible alone. I can’t even take it to my community alone. So I see my need for an arm very quickly.

The next aspect community is in Discipleship. That is why Paul says to the Colossians:

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God

Let me give you an example of this. Just say you were training to be a boxer. You watch a bunch of Ali and Tyson tapes. You get all of the equipment, you run, you do the workouts, you get in tip top shape. You are confident that you can be a world champ. As soon as you step into the ring at an amateur level you are going to get “knocked out”! I promise! Why? Because, you sparring, getting coaching and just having someone else assess you is critical. The same goes for the Christian walk. The only way to properly grow is to be in community. If not you will have a higher than reality view of yourself. Again I am not equating this to “church” because it is just as dangerous. Chruchianity just makes you a boxer who has gone to a bunch of fights and just because you have observed some moves from the sidelines you think you can step into the ring.

I write that to say that I don’t think biblical community can be done with 2 guys in a Coffee Shop. Yes you can experience God’s love. Yes, you can be doing a bunch of other things, but Scripturally you are not being faithful to either Ephesians 4 or 1 Corinthians 12. A biblcial community is a group of individuals meeting together for the purpose to serve one another and make disciples of the world. and one another.

I also want to fight against what is becoming the New Rome. Many today feel you have to be in a “church” where certain things are going on to really be biblical and I honestly believe that most churches actually prevent you from fulfilling the commands in Ephesians 4, Colossians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12. That is because the Pastor, staff and worship team do the majority of this for you. To do any of these things you must join some auxiliary department when I believe these things are to be done maybe a bit more “spontaneous”.  This is my two cents anyway. God bless.

(1) A Great Example of Community by Alan Knox