For
I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so
that you may be established-- that is, that I may be encouraged
together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
(Romans 01:11-12, NKJV).
The
world often unites against Christianity in mockery or slander, and
most often this happens in group settings. It's relatively rare for
such attacks to occur one-on-one. Usually, there is more than one
perpetrator, and each one seems to draw strength, encouragement and
boldness from the others.
Why
then do we think it strange that this same encouragement and
emboldening is to happen inside the faith? I have heard it said, and
you will likely hear it too, that all “we need is Jesus”. That is
not strictly true, for He designed His church to need not only Him,
but one another.
Granted,
and without doubt, He is the chief cornerstone, the foundation, and
without Him there is neither hope nor purpose in anything, let alone
a functioning and vibrant church. But He has made us for fellowship
with Him and with each other.
That
word fellowship is fascinating. It is koinonia
(koy-nohn-ee'-ah) in the Greek, and may have first been coined in New
Testament writings. Interestingly, the thing about Hebrew and Greek,
the two primary languages of the original manuscripts of the Bible,
is that new words are easily constructed by stringing old words
together. The result is not just a compound word, like “somehow”,
but a brand new word with potentially richer meaning than any of its
components.
Koinonia
is one of those instances. It
takes a lot of English word to convey the full sense of its meaning:
fellowship, communion, communication, distribution,
contribution, association, community, joint participation, share,
intimacy, and collection.
In
short, it is that special relationship we have with Jesus Christ, and
each other, fueled by a potent mixture of faith and love. It is
unique to the church. It was meant to be.
And
like all things in our human arsenal of spiritual survival in this
life, that fuel must be replenished on a regular basis, not because
it runs out or gets depleted, but because we leak. That is part of
the price we pay in our spiritual battle between our flesh (the old
fallen nature), and our new nature in Christ.
Now,
Jesus made it pretty simple for us in this regard. Through prayer,
immersion in His Word, and fellowship with each other, our tanks are
refilled.
That
is why in Hebrews we are exhorted not to neglect the assembling of
ourselves together in order to stir up love and good works... and be
encouraged by our mutual faith. (By the way, that phrase “stir up”,
is also the same Greek word used to describe a bubbling volcano,
which is a whole other study!)
It
is not that we need an “echo chamber” of chants and magical
incantations to invoke our faith, which is often how those outside
the church think of us. No, it is in fact, the diametric opposite
(complete and utterly different – like the two opposing points on
the diameter of a sphere).
We
need the encouragement of our mutual faith so that the cacophony
(loud and chaotic noise) of our own flesh and the world, is subdued
by the triumphant chorus of like-mindedness in Christ. It is not
ritual, incantation, or litany that we seek, but the quiet testimony
of lives lived in loving submission to our Lord and Savior.
In
1st
John, one of the benchmarks of being in the faith is that we “love
the brethren”. This is John's way of saying that there is something
about believers that bind us together beyond the ties of blood, or
custom, or geography or ethnicity (common national or cultural
traditions). And that something occurs almost instantly in many
cases.
We
who love and believe in Jesus have something so fundamentally
powerful in common, faith in the Lord, Himself, that it transcends
every other conceivable difference, and knits us together like cells
and organs in a physical organism.
That
is why the Bible calls us “the body of Christ”.
Remember
this when your mood, or your circumstances, or your sin, or your
doubts, incline you to remain isolated from other believers. That is
a mistake.
It
is like treating an illness by exposing yourself to greater
concentrations of the infecting agent. In this case, our own fallen
nature.
We
are designed by our Creator to first need Him, and then each other.
Love,
Dad
