You are not meant to be alone. You are not meant to face life here on your own strength. You are not an island. You need people. More accurately, you need your brothers and sisters in Christ. That is how it was designed. It is a spiritual fact and when we fight against it, decide against it we are deciding against Yahweh. Don't do it.
A simple verse to put the truth in focus is:
"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:20)
I make it a point not to argue against the words of Jesus. Even if I may not understand it at this moment I have found it is best policy simply to trust that Jesus is right.
There are a number of challenges with fellow Christians because each person is an individual and no one is perfect. We have certain expectations of each other and we all fail those expectations. We make mistakes, we hurt each other, we don't always follow Yahweh's instructions, we are sometimes selfish, we often try to manipulate things to our advantage. This causes hurt and when we are hurt the first thing we want to do is withdraw. This is natural to us. But we no longer allow our old nature to reign but instead support our new nature.
The first and most important aspect of this new nature is forgiveness. The only way the Body of Christ works is when forgiveness is always our first reaction. The only way we can be brothers and sisters is when we are liberal in our forgiveness. The only way we can make sense of anything is when we learn to forgive in the same manner we have been forgiven.
I am not talking about the forgiveness that says "I forgive but I will not trust you again". The forgiveness we have received from Father says "I forgive you and will continue to forgive you for eternity. I am making myself vulnerable to you and will absorb the pain in order to continue to forgive". Now if you want to talk about a definition of real love, this is it. It is that decision to not withdraw from the people who hurt us but to forgive them and to sacrifice ourselves for them, even if they hurt us again. This is love as defined by Jesus who told us to love each other as he has loved us.
If we choose to withdraw, to be alone, to isolate ourselves, it is because we have failed to understand what it is all about. It means we haven't surrendered our heart to Jesus but have simply paid lip service. This is not a physical or emotional response but a spiritual reality. Jesus transforms the surrendered heart, strengthens it to love as he has loved, unconditionally, with unending forgiveness, willing to be hurt countless times in vulnerability, always being healed by love. We are not an island and when Paul described the Church in 1 Corinthians 12 he ended it by explaining how this impossible thing was possible:
I want you to desire the best gifts. So I will show you a much better way. (1 Corinthians 12:31)
And then he gave us 1 Corinthians 13. Love is how it all works. Love makes the impossible work. Love provokes you to forgive those who hurt you and to draw close to them. These are the decisions we have to make. We have to decide not to withdraw, to stay close, and to make friends out of our brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter the cost.
Showing posts with label isolation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label isolation. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
The Dangers Of Isolation
Christians are not isolationists. Perhaps there are times we would like to run away and join a monastery, or disappear from this world, but that would be in disobedience to Yahweh's purpose for us. Perhaps more of us can identify with Jonah than we may think. It would be easier if all we had to do was read our Bible, pray and keep clear of all things that are in rebellion to Yahweh, but we remain here for the opposite purpose. Jesus loves those rebellious things and first called us out from them to heal us and to send us back as messengers so others would know healing is possible.
So Christians are not to be isolated from the evils of this world and neither are we to be isolated from each other. Far too many Christians lack a good understanding of who we are, of what Jesus has done, of relationships and purpose. Christians spend far too much time critiquing each other's service instead of getting on with the mission. There is one single verse that reminds me that the Lord is occupied with his servants and his plan is for each to succeed:
Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4)
Yes, so we let the Lord do the correcting (unless we have been given the responsibility in leadership to bring correction), and we concentrate on standing shoulder to shoulder in the mission. No Christian has been called to work alone. No Christian has been called to be isolated from the Body. When we accepted Jesus we became a member of the Body, not a lone soldier, and so we work in teams to complete our mission. This is why Paul, the apostle with the great revelation of the Church, the Body of Christ, described the Church as a Body. We are each one unit, belonging to the whole.
If we decide to isolate ourselves for whatever various reasons we are tricked into believing, it is only the enemy cutting us off from the safety of the heard. In being cut off we become vulnerable and open to his attacks. Often he will not try to destroy our faith but to make it null and void with false teachings that take us over a cliff. I often use an example from the Old Testament to make my point on this subject, although it is clear from all the writings of Paul.
In Judges 18 we find a group of Jews who are trying to find a place to call their own. They come across a city that is described in this manner:
"They saw the people who were there, how they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties with anyone." (v. 7)
They were easily destroyed because they had no one to stand with them. This is the danger of Christians who live in isolation from the Body of Christ. We were placed in the Body for a reason, because we need each other. We encourage and strengthen each other. Iron on iron, as the Word describes it, keeping each other sharp as we administer Jesus' love and compassion in a world that rejects him. Don't leave yourself open to attack and destruction; stand together in faith even if you are not in total agreement. Trust the correction to the Master while you serve with your brothers and sisters.
So Christians are not to be isolated from the evils of this world and neither are we to be isolated from each other. Far too many Christians lack a good understanding of who we are, of what Jesus has done, of relationships and purpose. Christians spend far too much time critiquing each other's service instead of getting on with the mission. There is one single verse that reminds me that the Lord is occupied with his servants and his plan is for each to succeed:
Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4)
Yes, so we let the Lord do the correcting (unless we have been given the responsibility in leadership to bring correction), and we concentrate on standing shoulder to shoulder in the mission. No Christian has been called to work alone. No Christian has been called to be isolated from the Body. When we accepted Jesus we became a member of the Body, not a lone soldier, and so we work in teams to complete our mission. This is why Paul, the apostle with the great revelation of the Church, the Body of Christ, described the Church as a Body. We are each one unit, belonging to the whole.
If we decide to isolate ourselves for whatever various reasons we are tricked into believing, it is only the enemy cutting us off from the safety of the heard. In being cut off we become vulnerable and open to his attacks. Often he will not try to destroy our faith but to make it null and void with false teachings that take us over a cliff. I often use an example from the Old Testament to make my point on this subject, although it is clear from all the writings of Paul.
In Judges 18 we find a group of Jews who are trying to find a place to call their own. They come across a city that is described in this manner:
"They saw the people who were there, how they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties with anyone." (v. 7)
They were easily destroyed because they had no one to stand with them. This is the danger of Christians who live in isolation from the Body of Christ. We were placed in the Body for a reason, because we need each other. We encourage and strengthen each other. Iron on iron, as the Word describes it, keeping each other sharp as we administer Jesus' love and compassion in a world that rejects him. Don't leave yourself open to attack and destruction; stand together in faith even if you are not in total agreement. Trust the correction to the Master while you serve with your brothers and sisters.
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