Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 244

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Living In Christ – 5

THE CHURCH: A LIVING COMMUNITY OF MATURE CHRIST-LIKE BELIEVERS.

Ephesians 4:13-16
(13)  And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature.
(14)  Then we shall no longer be children, carried by the waves and blown about by every shifting wind of the teaching of deceitful people, who lead others into error by the tricks they invent.
(15)  Instead, by speaking the truth in a spirit of love, we must grow up in every way to Christ, who is the head.
(16)  Under his control all the different parts of the body fit together, and the whole body is held together by every joint with which it is provided. So when each separate part works as it should, the whole body grows and builds itself up through love.

The Church is the body of Christ, a living diverse community, reaching up to Christ’s full stature, growing up in every way unto Christ, anchored firmly in the truth and functioning in love. 

Community shapes us and matures us.  Our first community is our family, then our school and our peers, then our college, our sports team, our friends, our professional colleagues, our culture, our nation.  Each of these makes a contribution to our beliefs, our personality and our character and shapes us a person. Our church, our participation in the community centered on Christ, should also shape us. 

In the verses above Paul places a great emphasis on the power of a Spirit-filled and functional community to help us to become like Jesus. Paul states that the result of an effectively functioning body of Christ will be profound:
…..we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature. (V.13)
….. we must grow up in every way to Christ, who is the head. (verse 15)
…… So when each separate part works as it should, the whole body grows and builds itself up through love. (v. 16)

A Christ-centered community that functions in love can make a huge difference in our lives, it can build us up until we are just like Jesus. On the other hand a dysfunctional community can destroy us.

On CNN today I saw an account of a couple in New Jersey whose four adopted children were under 50lbs in weight – and no-one noticed despite their regular involvement in a local church. Their utilities had been off for five months, the children were found when a neighbor noticed them searching through garbage for food.  This can only happen when community breaks down completely. Christians should “see” each other, notice each other, care for each other.  No Christian family should have their electricity cut-off or be without food. My wife and I regularly pay other people’s bills despite being on a missionary salary. This is part of loving one another and not closing your heart to human need.

1 John 3:16-18
(16)  This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others!
(17)  If we are rich and see others in need, yet close our hearts against them, how can we claim that we love God?
(18)  My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.

Of course discernment is needed when giving – and that is another issue. But today’s verses tell us that we need to be in community, seeing other people, caring for other people, praying with other Christians, hearing their stories, mowing their lawns, fixing their cars, baby-sitting their children, being friends and having fun together.

I am convinced that we will mature far more as person by living in love and participating in community than we will in five hundred seminars in a classroom. You learn more about love in baking a casserole for a tired friend than in a book defining all the Greek words –as useful as that is.

We become Christ-like by stretching ourselves, in love, in community. 
1 Peter 1:22
(22)  Now that by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart.

What would it do for you if you loved other people earnestly with all your heart and kept on doing it? 

What would it be like to be part of a bible-believing, Spirit-filled community that loved one another earnestly with all their heart?

It would produce solid, mature people who gave up their negativity and selfishness and who knew Christ and lived in love. This is precisely what Paul is aiming at and precisely what the spiritual gifts are for.

The spiritual gifts are not only for producing a good performance for an hour and a half on Sunday mornings, or for life behind a pulpit or on a stage. They are also for life away from the pulpit, life in the neighborhood and workplace. 

For instance we should pray for the sick at home, in church and in the workplace and in the schoolyard.

We can use gifts of encouragement, exhortation, administration, helps, and generosity – just about any place on Earth, but especially in community, among our brothers and sisters in Christ.

When we learn to function as we should in loving, open-hearted Christian community, then we will set in place spiritual processes that help us to grow up into Christ.

As we speak the truth in love, to one another, as friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, we will grow up in every way into Christ who is the Head.  For our community life comes not from a human leader but from Christ in our midst.

Two more things. 1.  Valid Christian community must be anchored in the Truth if it is not to be blown hither and yon by every wind of doctrine.  2. A functional Christian community is self-edifying. That is it “builds itself up in love’. Once things are set in place, then, quite naturally, people will be built up and grow (verse 16).

For an article I wrote on the Church as a Learning Organization go to:
http://www.aibi.ph/ebooks/BEQ/10lcom.htm

Blessings,

John Edmiston johned@aibi.ph

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