The sociology of the Gospel
June 3, 2010 | Comments Off
Ray Ortlund has a profound, brilliant, and piercing post today on how the Gospel should affect our relationships with other Christians–with all other Christians, regardless of whether their theology aligns with ours. Read it in its entirety, then read it again. Here’s a little taste to whet your appetite:
Whatever divides us emotionally from other Bible-believing, Christ-honoring Christians is a “plus” we’re adding to the gospel. It is the Galatian impulse of self-exaltation. It can even become a club with which we bash other Christians, at least in our thoughts, to punish, to exclude and to force into line with us.
What unifies the church is the gospel. What defines the gospel is the Bible. What interprets the Bible correctly is a hermeneutic centered on Jesus Christ crucified, the all-sufficient Savior of sinners, who gives himself away on terms of radical grace to all alike. What proves that that gospel hermeneutic has captured our hearts is that we are not looking down on other believers but lifting them up, not seeing ourselves as better but grateful for their contribution to the cause, not standing aloof but embracing them freely, not wishing they would become like us but serving them in love (Galatians 5:13).
Gospel culture
May 14, 2010 | Comments Off
Ray Ortlund posts today about the kind of culture the Gospel should create in us. In addition to some piercing comments from Philippians 2:3, he includes this quote from Jonathan Edwards:
“Spiritual pride is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christianity. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit, to darken the mind and mislead the judgment. It is the main source of all the mischief the devil introduces, to clog and hinder a work of God.
Spiritual pride tends to speak of other persons’ sins with bitterness or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt. But pure Christian humility rather tends either to be silent about these problems or to speak of them with grief and pity. Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble Christian is most guarded about himself. He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart. The proud person is apt to find fault with other believers, that they are low in grace, and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and to be quick to note their deficiencies. But the humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He is apt to esteem others better than himself.”
Jonathan Edwards, Works (Edinburgh, 1979), I:398-400. Style updated.
How is your view of yourself versus your view of others? Read the whole post to see how Ortlund grounds humility toward others (read: Gospel culture) in the Gospel and in the very nature of God.
Ways to preserve unity in the body
May 5, 2010 | Comments Off
From Ray Ortlund, here are seven ways from the Scriptures to guard and repair relationships. Be sure to read his (highly helpful) comments on each of these seven here.
1. We can rejoice in one another, because the Lord rejoices in us. (Psalm 16:3)
2. We can create an environment of trust rather than negative scrutiny. (1 Corinthians 4:5)
3. We can judge ourselves, even as we give each other the benefit of the doubt. (Matthew 7:5)
4. If a problem must be addressed, we can talk to, not about. Gossip destroys. (Matthew 18:15; James 1:26)
5. If a problem must be addressed, we can avoid blanket statements but identify factual specifics, offer a positive path forward and preserve everyone’s dignity.
6. We can always extend kindness. (Ephesians 4:32)
7. When we do wrong one another, we can say to the person harmed, “I was wrong. I am sorry. It won’t happen again. Is there anything I could do now that might make a positive difference?” (Genesis 33:4)
New Testament “One Another” Commands
May 5, 2010 | Comments Off
In the context of our series on community, I thought this list would be good by way of stirring you up, reminding you of our duties toward each other in the New Covenant community. (The list comes courtesy of bulletininserts.org.)
- Be at peace with one another. Mk. 9:50
- Wash one another’s feet. Jn. 13:14
- Love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Jn. 13:34
- Love one another with brotherly affection. Rom. 12:10
- Outdo one another in showing honor. Rom. 12:10
- Live in harmony with one another. Rom. 12:16
- Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. Rom. 15:7
- Greet one another with a holy kiss. Rom 16:16, 2 Cor. 13:12
- Wait for one another. 1 Cor. 11:33
- Comfort one another, agree with one another. 2 Co. 13:11
- Through love serve one another. Gal. 5:13
- Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Gal. 6:2
- Bear with one another in love. Eph. 4:2
- Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Eph. 4:32
- Address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Eph. 5:19
- Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph. 5:21
- Do not lie to one another. Col. 3:9
- Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. Col. 3:13
- Teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. Col. 3:16
- Encourage one another. 1 Th. 4:18 , Heb. 10:25
- Encourage one another and build one another up. 1 Th. 5:11
- Always seek to do good to one another. 1 Th. 5:15
- Exhort one another every day. Heb. 3:13
- Stir up one another to love and good works. Heb. 10:24
- Do not speak evil against one another. Jas. 4:11
- Do not grumble against one another. Jas. 5:9
- Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. Jas. 5:16
- Love one another earnestly from a pure heart. 1 Pe. 1:22
- Keep loving one another earnestly. 1 Pe. 4:8
- Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 1 Pe. 4:9
- Serve one another. 1 Pe. 4:10
- Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. 1 Pe. 5:5
- Greet one another with the kiss of love. 1 Pe. 5:14
- Love one another. 1 Jn. 3:11, 1 Jn. 3:23, 1 Jn. 4:7, 1 Jn. 4:12, 2 Jn. 1:5
Christian community, part 4 (finally)
May 4, 2010 | Comments Off
Apologies for the blog silence over the past few weeks. I was preparing for a piano recital I gave in St. Louis last Sunday. I am very thankful that the church allows me the opportunity to do things like this, and I am also grateful to Blake Loy and Steve Brack, who willingly and skillfully filled in during my absence.
I want to continue sharing some thoughts regarding Christian community. (You can review the previous posts here: part 1, part 2, part 3.) Consider this statement from Jesus:
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
This is a huge statement. To my knowledge, it is the only statement Jesus makes about how the world will know we are His disciples. So the one and only characteristic Jesus gives for showing the world who we are is love, and more specifically, the same kind of self-sacrificing, unconditional love Christ shows to us (see verse 34).
In my small group we have been discussing the implications of this truth for how we live in community with each other. First of all, Jesus’ words here demand that we show love in concrete ways. It is not enough to say we have love; we must show it (1 John 3:16-18). Second, we must love each other in ways that the world can see. For if, as Francis Schaeffer put it, our primary apologetic to the world is our love for each other, then the world must actually be able to see how we love each other.
How does this flesh out in your life? Our group discussed how simply spending time at each other’s houses can be a way of letting the world see our Christ-like love: and in fact, the family who hosts our group has seen this with one of their neighbors in particular, who has noticed that we all gather a couple times a month. Serving each other in tangible ways can also be a witness to the world; perhaps you are skilled in car repair, or you’re handy around the house, or you can offer babysitting, or you can just give a meal (even when it’s not been requested).
The bottom line is that we have to actually be others’ lives in order to actually love them, and in order to be seen loving them. Practicing this kind of self-sacrificial love toward each other requires a complete re-orientation of our lives. As my first article on community points out, we who are in Christ no longer belong to ourselves; we belong to Christ, and to His body, the church. So we must live in such a way that shows this to be true–both to each other, and to the world.
Christian community part 3: a couple of dangers
March 16, 2010 | Comments Off
We have said so far that Christian community is not something we create; rather it is created by God, and it is a reality of which every believer partakes. Christian community is not something to be merited any more than salvation; it is a gracious gift of God just as our salvation is.
Here we meet with danger. It is the same danger that befalls those who say that, since salvation is all of grace, it does not matter what the believer does after receiving Christ by faith. Grace means I don’t have to do anything, right? And if we understand sanctification correctly, we will argue back: “May it never be!” Grace is not opposed to works; rather, grace changes the kind of works we do. If we are under grace, we no longer work in hopes of earning salvation; rather, we work out the salvation we have already been given.
I’ll say it again: grace does not mean we stop working. Grace instead provides us a basis on which to work freely, without fear of failing. The grace of being united with Christ means that we are forgiven and perfected in Him, freeing us from having to work to earn forgiveness or perfect ourselves. Thus we can work out our salvation—we can begin to live out, to become like, what God has already made us in Christ. And the grace of the Holy Spirit’s presence in us provides us with power to work without fear of exhaustion, without having to rely on our own strength to see us through.
Sanctification is about living in the reality of what God has done for us in Christ, of who God is for us in Christ, and of who we are in Christ. It is a battle to live this way; our flesh wants to go back to the old way of living, the old way of relating to God on the basis of works. So it is hard work. But it is a decidedly different kind of work from the kind we do apart from Christ.
And here is how that relates to our practice of Christian community: If Christian community, like salvation, is a gracious reality created and given to us by God in Christ, then the practice of Christian community, like working out our salvation, is a matter of living in the light of what God has done for us. Realizing the grace of Christian community does not allow us to be lazy in practicing community, any more than understanding salvation by grace alone allows us to be lazy in practicing holiness. Rather, it provides us with the proper basis on which to found our practice of Christian community.
So we can avoid the danger of failing to live out the realities of Christian community by applying the same truths we apply to our sanctification: living in the reality of what God has done in Christ. But there is another danger that the truths I’ve been addressing help us avoid, which is the danger of thinking that our ideals of community constitute what Christian community should be.
What do I mean by this? Let’s continue the comparison to the Christian life: we acknowledge that salvation is not about meeting our felt needs, nor is it about realizing our ideals for this life. Rather, the Christian life is about greater, eternal realities, and how we live in light of them now. In the same way, Christian community is not about meeting our felt needs or realizing our ideals for this life.
We get tripped up very often here: just as we often enter the Christian life with unrealistic expectations (living on a continual spiritual high, winning every battle with sin, having our “best life now”), we even more often enter the Christian community with unrealistic expectations (having a continual sense of relational fulfillment, meeting all our felt emotional needs, gaining some deep experience of community). We treat the Christian community as if it should conform to our own personal vision for it, and when it fails to measure up, we find it unsatisfactory, and we complain against others in the community and ultimately against God, who has failed to give us what we think we should have.
Just as the key to combating the “best life now” view of the Christian life is to gain an eternal perspective on God’s plan for His people, so the key to combating the idealistic view of Christian community is to gain God’s perspective on community—namely, that it is a spiritual reality, not an emotional or relational one. It is to be received and practiced by faith, not by sight (or feelings).
The key in all of this is, as I have been saying, understanding that Christian community is a gracious gift of God. As we receive this gracious gift—on God’s terms, not our own, and realizing its (huge!) implications for how we live together as God’s people—we should give thanks for God’s gracious gift, and we should strive to live out the reality of what He has created for His glory and for our good.
Next time we will look briefly at what it means to be thankful for Christian community, and then begin to see its implications for how we live with each other.
Christian community part 2: community by works?
March 9, 2010 | Comments Off
Last week we saw that Christian community is an entity of which we are all a part; it is not an option but rather a reality for us. If we are in Christ, we are a part of his body. No room for debate.
A key to understanding and practicing the reality of Christian community is to understand how this community comes about. How did we become a part of the body of Christ?
The answer to that question is the same as the answer to how we became Christians. In fact, the two questions are basically one, since to be a Christian is to be a part of Christ’s body. So remember how we were saved: “For by grace have you been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Just as we were saved by grace, through faith, so we are part of Christ’s body by grace, through faith.
Don’t believe me? Read the rest of Ephesians 2; Paul moves directly from his great declaration of sola fide, sola gratia to a discussion of—wait for it—Christian community! Paul directly connects the work of Christ in reconciling men to God with the work of Christ in reconciling men to each other. Christ makes “one new man” at the cross, reconciling us “to God in one body through the cross.” (verses 15 & 16) The glorious work of reconciliation happens both upward—between God and man—and outward—between man and man. And thus we are made one.
Paul makes the point here to demonstrate the new unity between Jews and Gentiles; Christ has become the way of salvation for both groups, making both groups into one group. So there is a definite point of theology to grasp with regard to Israel and the universal church. But there is also a much, much larger point to grasp with regard to what it means to be in Christ, for as Gentiles become one with Jews in Christ, so every Christian becomes one with all other Christians in Christ, and “the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” (verse 21)
And here comes the kicker: not a bit of this work is ours. Just as not a bit of the work of salvation is ours, so not a bit of the work of becoming part of the body of Christ is ours. Look back over 2:11-22; do you see one single thing done by us? Do you not rather see that everything stated here is done by God in Christ?
So why am I making such a point of this?
Well, for starters, it emphasizes and strengthens the point I made last week, which was that being a Christian automatically means being part of Christ’s body; the work of Christ accomplished both things.
But more than this, it means that we relate to one another on the same basis on which we relate to God, namely, the finished work of Christ on our behalf.
In other words, just as we approach God by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ, so we approach each other by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ. Just as we can experience grace and love and full acceptance from God to us because of Jesus, so we can experience grace and love and full acceptance from one to the other of those who are in Jesus.
Do we approach God by works? Well, then we don’t approach each other by works either. Do we need to earn God’s favor? Well, then we don’t need to earn each other’s favor. Does God accept us fully, seeing us through the perfect blood and righteousness of Christ? Well, we should accept each other fully, seeing others through the perfect blood and righteousness of Christ. Does our standing with God change based on our performance? Well, then our standing with each other should not change based on anyone’s performance.
Here is how Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it in Life Together: “What persons are in themselves as Christians, in their inwardness and piety [read: their performance as a Christian], cannot constitute the basis of our community, which is determined by what those persons are in terms of Christ. Our community consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us.” (emphasis mine)
So, just as being a part of Christian community is not an option, since being a Christian is the same thing as being a member of Christ’s body, so also extending the hand of fellowship to other Christians is not an option, any more than God can refuse the presence of the Holy Spirit to anyone who is in Christ.
Next week I hope to flesh this out more. In addition, stay tuned to the Sunday School series that started this past Sunday, which will go a long way toward helping us to live out the Gospel in the specific relational context of conflict. (You can listen to the first session here.)
Christian community, part 1: stay out of my space?
March 2, 2010 | Comments Off
Who owns your life? To whom should your life be submitted?
I think we would all readily answer that God owns us (1 Corinthians 6:20), and our lives should be submitted in loving obedience to Him (James 4:7). But is there more to it than this?
What do you make of the passages that say we are members of one another? There are a few:
Romans 12:4-5
1 Corinthians 12:12, 27 (read in between too)
Ephesians 4:25 (but really, read the whole chapter)
Do you catch my drift? The Christian life is not just about me and Jesus doin’ our thing. I not only belong to Him; I belong to His body.
Note that none of these passages say we should be members of the body; they say we are members of the body. Being members of one another in Christ is not something to strive toward; it is something that is. Belonging to the Christian community is not an option, because it is the reality for all who are in Christ.
Let me say that again.
Belonging to the Christian community is not an option, because it is the reality for all who are in Christ.
If we are in Christ, we are in His body, which means we are members of one another. Period. This is the reality of Christian community: no one is exempt from the community except those who are outside Christ altogether.
This flips upside down our American sense of independence and individualism. Upside down, inside out, blown to bits—the reality of the body of Christ, the Christian community, totally subverts the American idol of personal space and time.
My space is not my own, my time is not my own, my life is not my own; it belongs not only to Christ but to His body, my fellow believers.
I hope this rocks your world today. And tomorrow. And next week. And next year.
I will continue writing about this idea, and how it is fleshed out, over the next several weeks.