Here in the West we live in a culture that we could characterise by individualism, hedonism and materialism. Ours is a culture that focuses among other things on experience, well-being and health. It’s a culture of self-improvement with a post-Christian outlook on life. It is a culture that rejects divine authority and is critical to human authority.
Traits of these cultural phenomena have not passed by the doors of our churches and individualism reigns supreme in many of our Christian circles. We see the effect in the way people easily change churches for the latest teaching or experience. We see it in the lack of commitment to church life, especially ‘when the going gets tough’. We see it in the consumer mentality when people expect an ‘inner circle’ in church to do all the work. We see it when Christians abandon churches and spiritual leadership for independence and private piety, etc.
How far-removed this spirit of western culture is from the way God expects his people to live!
God’s church is not like a shopping centre where you take what you like. Nor are God’s people like spectators at a rock concert who only happen to find themselves at the same place because of their common interest.
The apostle Peter writes about commitment when he reminds the followers of Jesus: “God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple.” (1 Peter 2:5)
How different are bricks carefully cemented together in a building from bricks laying uselessly around the place!
The apostle Paul writes about the same theme to God’s reborn children in Corinth: “God's temple is holy, and you Christians are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:17)
Also to the messianic community in Ephesus (modern Turkey) Paul writes about the fellowship of believers in Jesus as God’s temple:
“We are his [God’s] house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.
We who believe are carefully joined together, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.
Through him [Jesus] you ... are also joined together as part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:20-22)
To the Christians in Rome, Paul shows that God sees his church as a living organism, not as a loose organisation:
“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's Body.
We are all parts of his one Body, and each of us has different work to do.
And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5)
If you ever made the gruesome discovery of finding a human body part, you would probably immediately ask whose body the part belongs to? Separate body parts simply do not walk around! And this is the same with Christ’s local Body: all reborn children of God belong together in one living and loving organism.
In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul explains that there is no place for rigid individualism in the Body of Christ:
“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body. So it is with the Body of Christ.
Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles [non-Jews], some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ's Body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit.
Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.
If the foot says, "I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand," that does not make it any less a part of the body.
And if the ear says, "I am not part of the body because I am only an ear and not an eye," would that make it any less a part of the body?
Suppose the whole body were an eye-- then how would you hear?
Or if your whole body were just one big ear, how could you smell anything?
But God made our bodies with many parts, and he has put each part just where he wants it.
What a strange thing a body would be if it had only one part!
Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.
The eye can never say to the hand, "I don't need you." The head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you."
In fact, some of the parts that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary.
And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care.
So we carefully protect from the eyes of others those parts that should not be seen, while other parts do not require this special care.
So God has put the body together in such a way that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity.
This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other equally.
If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
Now all of you together are Christ's Body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-25)
Not only does God want Jesus’ followers to devotedly live together and love each other. In meditation 47 we saw that God’s Spirit also wants every local church to grow into the likeness of Christ.
In that way God the Father answers the prayer of his Son:
“... that they may be one (in the same way) as we are one: I in them and you in me.” (John 17:22b-23a)
And in that way God the Spirit wants to prepare every local expression of Christ’s universal Body for the wedding celebration of the Lamb at the end of the ages.
Meanwhile the apostle Paul urges the church in Philippi and our churches to live Christ’s way in the midst of our God-less society:
“You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people.
Let your lives shine brightly before them. Hold tightly to the Word of life (i.e. the Bible)...” (Philippians 2:15-16a)
All this leaves us with some heart-searching questions concerning our local congregations:
-- Are the members of my church lovingly committed to each other?
-- Is my church conscious of the fact that it is a ‘vehicle’ [temple] of God’s Spirit in our self-centred and God-less society?
-- Does my church hunger for Christlike transformation?
-- In what way do I see God’s Spirit transforming my local congregation into the likeness of Christ?
-- In what ways does my church differ from modern society?
-- In what way does my church reflect modern society?
-- Is my church aware of the fact that God’s Spirit prepares it for the celebration of the wedding feast of the Lamb?
The Bible text John 17:22b-23a is a quote of the New International Version. The other texts are quoted from the New Living Translation.
The next meditation will be published on Friday 25 March 2011.
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