I believe the 1 John passage is a good passage to go back to in reference to the interrelation we are to have with other Christians. We have spoken a little about the difference between using our confrontation and subsequent interrelation with the Body as the starting point in the process of spiritual knowledge as apposed to the individual’s “enlightenment,” and subsequent decision to join like minded individuals. This idea, man’s autonomous ability to come to truth on his own, is what I am suggesting is a primary culprit in the “Church Invisible” losing its interrelational identity. Western Civilization, especially, has become so focused on the individual’s ability to objectively discern all truth for himself that the desire to submit one’s observations to the accountability of a larger community has become undesirable, if not suspect. Southern Baptists, of which I have traditionally been involved with, are some of the worst at pushing for the complete autonomy of every participant within the church system. The individual worshiper is autonomous in their spiritual life and thus can not effectively be held accountable. Each local church is touted as being autonomous and thus not inherently tied to the accountability of another church of like persuasion. Our associations consist of little more than websites for us to find our church listed and to organize an occasional softball league. With this bent toward individuality in mind, let’s look at an example in the Word where John is reaching out to the lost in order that they might be interrelated.
1 John 1:1-4
“1What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—2and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—3what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.” (NASB)
Do you notice all the “we”s involved in this passage? He is certainly talking from the perspective of a collective. And what is the purpose of this intro? Is it not to reveal to the ones in the dark that there consists a community of light within Jesus Christ that calls to them, that they might see and become a part of the “fellowship?” “You too may have fellowship with us: and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Where is the individual in this play of wills? Where is the autonomous self? “What was from the beginning” was revealed to a fallen, un-interrelated community so that a new interrelated community in Christ, The Body, might be inaugurated. Ever since the inauguration, our call to others has been “Join Us,” not “Join Me.”
5 comments:
Rats, my post regarding your 4/1/06 post did not go through. It is just as well.
A couple of exegetical nuances to through out here. The we and us in this passage would seem to be specifically the plurality of the Apostles the foundation of the church on whose shoulders we stand. Not that you were necessarily intending this, Jason; however, it will be helpful not to impute the full-orbed church to the we and us here when it would seem to refer to the Apostles as a subset within the church.
Secondly the "so that you might also have fellowship with us" is as you point out very much a corporate idea, the "you" there is the second person plural (ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς κοινωνίαν ἔχητε μεθ̓ ἡμῶν).
There would seem to be an analogy between the Church and her Head. As Jesus is mysteriously fully God and fully man, one person and two natures; so also the church is fully corporate and yet mysteriously that incorporation is an amalgam of individuals. The source then of unity lies in fact where you direct us, in the Union with Christ.
I want for us to be careful to to obliterate the individual in our concern for the missing community of the contemporary church. Let's remember that Jesus was and is concerned to touch individuals, to heal them, and love them as individuals and in this way to call them as the Church corporately to Himself.
Just thoughts...
That would be nuances to throw out... sorry.
Right you are on the "we" and "us" of the passage referring to those who had physically experienced the incarnate Christ. That being said, the idea is that they still constituted a community, a fellowship, which was to be joined and interrelationally experienced.
Your statement about "being careful to not obliterate the individual" is very important to our discussion. First of all, how could one ever obliterate the "individual"? Communism, with its best effort, was not able to obliterate the individual. What you have brought up is the question of the role of the "individual" in the interrelational Body. Let's all suggest some scriptures that define how the individual is to be defined in relation to the Body.
I like to look at the Church as God's family. All related to each other through our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.Our individualism comes from our spiritual gifts and the way they are manifested for the betterment of the whole Church.By whole Church I mean the universal Church.
For this understanding we have to go to the 12th Chapter of 1 Cor., where in verse 12 we are told, "The body (Church)is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.
The apostle Paul continues in the 12th chapter to talk about how the Church is interrelated. How each of us have our part to play every day. I thank God that He allows me to play my part.
I enjoy the discussion. God bless your work.
The purpose of this post is to show that the idea of the church of God, the people of God called out of the world and into covenant relationship with Him, is something that we must consider in the broadest scope possible that we might gain the greatest insight into our present experience today as the New Testament variation on this theme.
The idea of the church (εκκλησία ekklaysia- the called out ones) is most definitely not a New Testament concept. The NT administration of it is certainly the crowning variation on this theme that transcends all of Redemptive History. It is Adam that is called to multiply and have dominion over the whole of the earth - while in communion with God. Abraham is called out of the land of Ur (Babylonia) with the expressed purpose that God would be his God and from Abraham would come God's people. Here in Genesis 15-21 we find that God binds himself to Abraham and his descendants, his offspring, which of course echoes Peter's proclamation, "Repent and be baptized, you and your household" (Acts 2).
It is also worth noting that it is God who goes into exile with His People (Ezekiel 8-11) after the Prophets had been calling the covenant community back to faithfulness before the Lord. The OT never records for us the return of the LORD's Spirit to His Temple when it is rebuilt (Ezra), where even the Israelites saw that the 2nd Temple did not have the Glory that the previous Temple had possessed. What we do see is that Christ, the head of the Church (εκκλησία in Col 1:17-18) comes to the Temple as the One Faithful Israelite (i.e., in perfect communion with the LORD) and at the same time returns the effulgence of the LORD's Glory (Hebrews 1:1-4) to the Temple because He was Himself the fullness of that Glory. He declares that He will destroy the 2nd Temple (Ezra) and rebuild it in 3 days (scipture reference is slipping my mind here). What we see is that He remakes the People of God, the called out ones, the εκκλησία of God, into the Temple itself. So this is the indentity that we have to work with as the Church today. We are most certainly interrelated and that interrelation is founded and bent towards the effulgence of God's glory that we might say with Paul "to live is Christ, to die is gain."
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