| We live in a Christian culture that I fear is often more American than biblical where we apply the American dream to our Christian lives carrying the banners of individualism, self-sufficiency, self-improvement, self . . . self . . . self . . . However, with all of the things that Christ could have prayed for in John 17, He prayed that we would be one, even as He and His Father are one, so that the world would come to know Him. The Bible speaks of a community of believers where we all grow up together. It speaks of us as stones in the building of a house, as the members of a body that are inextricably connected to one another and dependent on each other. In Romans 12:1 Paul told his readers that they were to present their bodies together as one single sacrifice (as opposed to presenting each body as a separate, individual sacrifice). Our worship is to be corporate, and books like I John remind us that we worship God and love Him through loving one another. I Corinthians 13 reminds us that apart from love, nothing we do matters in the least, and that passage falls right smack dab in the middle of a discussion of how we are all members of one body, a community of believers tied so tightly together that we are all dependent upon every other member of the body of Christ. |
So, why am I trying to grow in my walk with God? Who is my Christian life about anyways? Is there really a place for focusing on just my walk with God apart from the growth of the rest of the body of Christ?
Here’s some thoughts from Oswald Chambers that bring a bit of good perspective:
The Spiritually Self-Seeking Church
“. . . till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . . —Ephesians 4:13”
Reconciliation means the restoring of the relationship between the entire human race and God, putting it back to what God designed it to be. This is what Jesus Christ did in redemption. The church ceases to be spiritual when it becomes self-seeking, only interested in the development of its own organization. The reconciliation of the human race according to His plan means realizing Him not only in our lives individually, but also in our lives collectively. Jesus Christ sent apostles and teachers for this very purpose— that the corporate Person of Christ and His church, made up of many members, might be brought into being and made known. We are not here to develop a spiritual life of our own, or to enjoy a quiet spiritual retreat. We are here to have the full realization of Jesus Christ, for the purpose of building His body.
Am I building up the body of Christ, or am I only concerned about my own personal development? The essential thing is my personal relationship with Jesus Christ— “. . . that I may know Him. . .” (Philippians 3:10). To fulfill God’s perfect design for me requires my total surrender— complete abandonment of myself to Him. Whenever I only want things for myself, the relationship is distorted. And I will suffer great humiliation once I come to acknowledge and understand that I have not really been concerned about realizing Jesus Christ Himself, but only concerned with knowing what He has done for me.
My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace, Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.
Am I measuring my life by this standard or by something less?
Mackeys in Japan 