Happy February, Messiah Texas!
I am sure you’ve seen the seasonal aisles in the grocery store the past few weeks. This is the time of year when people buy each other red hearts and chalky candy to say “I love you.” Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not, this is a good time to re-examine what Scripture says on love, community, and relationships and to realign with those Biblical standards. Fair warning… this is NOT a lovey-dovey, feel-good post.
As always, we ground ourselves in Scripture first. Everyone knows the famous love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13 (if you don’t, go read it); but, I am going to pull in something a bit less referenced. Romans 12 provides us such beautiful standards of love and dwelling together in a harmonious community. Verses 3-8 discuss how we are all parts of a whole with different giftings and functions. No one person or gifting is more important than another; they all work together to serve the kingdom. Therefore, we should not think more highly of ourselves in our own gift than our fellow servants; and we should use our giftings to serve the kingdom with joy and cheerfulness rather than grumbling because we didn’t get someone else’s gift. Verses 9-13 contain a number of injunctions mapping out what loving community should look like. Love should be without hypocrisy, detesting evil and clinging to good. We should love one another as brothers and sisters in Messiah, and (my favorite part) “outdo one another in giving honor.”
But what does that look like in real life? Well, there is a pretty heavy tendency in this walk to isolate because we “have it all figured out.” Right? I have seen time and again, believers ostracize one another over the STUPIDEST things. It is divisive, and it is hurting us as a community and a body of believers. Human beings were created to be in community, but we live in a time when people are more “connected” than ever, while feeling the most isolated, lonely, and depressed we have felt in recorded history. Hmmm. We are social creatures. Just from a physical standpoint, we can’t thrive in isolation. The body of believers is the same way. The body cannot survive if the body parts are cutting themselves off all the time because they found some new hill to die on. (I think maybe the enemy knows this.) We need each other to feel like we belong, to sharpen us, and to call us back from the crazy sometimes. The strength of community allows us to walk in the strength of our giftings. Our children and young people need community in this walk, because if they can’t get it here, guess where they have to go to get it.
Let’s take it one step further…
We, the body of believers, are not the point. We are a conduit. Our lives, our families, our marriages, our children, and the way we walk out our faith are opportunities for people to see the Light of God in us. Our job is to be a light to the world and salt to the earth. Our job is to live our faith in such a way that the world sees us and wants a piece of our amazing God. Our job is that when people leave an encounter with us, they had a little moment with God in their day. We can’t do that if we are fighting over every little interpretation of Scripture. We are weak and ineffectual at best. Sure, we might get some detail of Scripture figured out, but we are missing the point because all the world sees is hypocrisy, infighting, and our children leaving this walk the second they can escape.
Let me be clear… I am in no way saying to stop studying Scripture. On the contrary, only from a truly Scripture-rooted place can we walk in the calling God has granted us. But we can study Scripture and still come together as a unified body of believers, even in disagreement. If we handle disagreements by just cutting people off, how are we any different from the world? How will the world see our God in us?
So, this February, take some time to reflect on your own relationships. Are they rooted in love and devotion and honor? Or are they rooted in divisiveness and dissension? Who does the world see when they look at you? What changes do you need to make and what habits do you need to repent from so that you can be an effective Kingdom servant? The enemy knows we are most effective when rooted in Scripture-based community, and he is TERRIFIED. So let’s stop allowing him to use the very thing that should be uniting us to tear us apart.
Until next month,
Shalom Friends!
