Mutual Faith

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.

A. W. Pink
1886-1952

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-20^th 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.

          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.