Faith
16
At the beginning of Paul’s greatest epistle,
Romans, Paul introduces both himself and Christ. He chases that with
some words of commendation to the Christians in Rome. Following these, he
expresses his great desire to come and to see them.
Romans 1.8-12
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you
all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit
in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in
my prayers;
10 Making request, if by any means now at length I
might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto
you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established;
12 That is, that I may be comforted together with
you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
The purpose of this blog series is to
examine the subject of faith in the Word of God, and what we find here in the
highlighted phrase at the end of this introductory statement in Romans is
highly beneficial. Paul is saying this: 1) You have faith. I know it for your
reputation for such has reached all the way to me. 2) I have faith. 3) If and
when we can both be together we will gain something by it. Paul then describes
the benefits to be gained as a spiritual gift from God, as a comfort, and as
something which helps to establish us. Now that I have shown you the bones of
this blog post let me actually write it for you.
I wrote earlier in this series that
our faith ought to be placed in God. Everyone has faith. We get to
choose where to place it. We ought to put all of our apples into God’s basket. The
truth is when we do that, by definition, we do not need other people; we only need
and depend upon Him. But having said that, it does not then follow that other
people are not beneficial to us. They plainly are, and that is precisely what
Paul is communicating to us above. My faith in God does not require anyone else
but it is helped by many another brother in Christ.
God did not design Christianity to be
lived in a vacuum. While some of our spiritual expressions are solitary, if all
of them are there is a problem. A Lone Ranger religion is problematic. He
designed us to help each other, to minister to one another. We see this in the
frequent admonitions in the New Testament using the phrase one another. To
put it bluntly, your church and your spiritual friends were designed to help
you. But they cannot help you if you
choose to live in isolation. God calls us to be a community, to be together,
mutually supporting and ministering to one another.
I do not care how mature you become in
Christ you will not grow past this point.
One of the well-known commentators of
yesteryear failed here, and it is for precisely this reason I refuse to read
him. A. W. Pink was an esteemed mid-20th century author. As his
renown for biblical insight grew so did his withdrawal from Christian society.
The last twenty years of his life he devoted scores of hours a week to
finishing his commentaries. With great discipline, his study bore fruit and it
shows in that he is still widely read a century later. But not by me. Why?
Because for the last twenty years of his life he refused to go to church. He
felt he could accomplish more for the cause of Christ by using those hours to
write. I do not know all of his thinking, but his actions show me that he felt he
was beyond the benefit of mutual faith. And that is a very bad place to be.
 |
| A. W. Pink 1886-1952 |
The practical necessity and benefit of
mutual faith is why a church must ever be mindful of its shut ins and seniors.
It is one thing for a person to willfully choose to absent themselves from the accountability
and ministry of assembling with His people. It is an entirely different thing
when they desire to come but cannot. Just last week, our church formed up after
the morning service into a parade of cars, and slowly
drove by some of our seniors here in Dubuque. Why? Because we want them to know
they are not forgotten. We want to somehow find a way to grant them the benefit
of mutual faith.
The blessing of mutual faith is
dependent, however, on that faith being similar. Make no mistake, with this
blog post I am not praising generic togetherness. Every community gathering,
indeed, every church is not equal to every other church. The two word phrase
found often in Scripture, the faith, is indicative of this. It is the
body of doctrine that we are all called to hold in common. And if you do not
hold the same body of doctrine that I do then we have no basis for fellowship,
no basis for walking together (Amos 3.3). But where such faith is held
in common that faith ought to be exercised communally, mutually.
In my time in Christian work I have
met thousands of Christians who do not have a church home, or do not take an
active place in that church’s service for the Lord. Oh, they may visit one
every once in a while but there is no particular local church where they have
plugged themselves in to serve and to be served. They are spiritually homeless.
Not coincidentally, their Christianity is almost always a weak, cobwebby type
of thing, insubstantial and easily shaken.
This is why one of the most important
things you can do for your marriage and for your family is to root yourself
deeply into the life and culture of a biblical local church. From time to time
I hear the misleading stat that Christians divorce as often as non-Christians.
I suppose that may well be true if you define Christians as including
Catholics, Mormons, and all kinds of other professing nonsense. But in my
twenty-three years of pastoring, I can say that I have only seen two active
church member couples divorce. That is an excellent percentage.
I do not say this to benefit my
church. I do not write for my church, primarily. I have no axe to grind. You do
not attend my church. But it is not about your church either. It is about you
and about those you love. Your church and your active attachment to it is more
important than your children’s school. It is much more important than their
participation in sports. It is vital to your family’s long term stability and
growth.
This is why one of the most important
things you can do for your marriage and your family is to stop bouncing around
from church to church. If I transplanted a sapling every couple of years it
would never develop into a mighty tree, and neither will your children. Find a
good church. Put your roots down. Build strong relationships with those around
you. Let them minister to your need and do you minister to theirs. And you will
find your faith and your Christianity gradually yet firmly established.
Mutual faith brings such great comfort
with it. I cast my mind back over the troubles and trials God has brought my
way, and I blush to think of how weak I have been. Yet in addition to my own
direct relationship with the Lord one constant source of strength and comfort
remains – my church. When I buried my daughter my church gathered around me and
poured grace into my life. I will never forget that. What comfort God’s people
have brought to me in these decades, and what comfort they will bring to me in
the decades yet remaining until He calls me home.
Elijah, battling Jezebel, wanted to
die for the simple reason that he thought he was all alone. But he was not. Yet
I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto
Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him (I Kings 19.18). Everybody
needs to see what God showed Elijah that day. Never has that been more true
than right now. For many, if not most, of us, we are separated in some very
real way from God’s people. Our church attendance is limited at best and legally
forbidden at worst. Pastors cannot be with their people. We tune into
livestreams and join Zoom prayer meetings but we find at the core that such
things are cold comfort. Why? God designed us to be together but we cannot be.
Let us not play the Elijah card. Let us remember our mutual faith. Let us be
grateful for its past blessings and look forward them again. And when this
Covid-19 crisis has passed let us hold more fiercely than ever to our mutual
faith.
You are not alone. We are all still
here. And so is He.
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