This
morning, the primary focus of my time with God was on what it means to, “count others more significant than
yourselves.”[1] What kept coming to mind is the way that people traumatized by
abuse would hear this in their sark (flesh). While the thoughts and feelings of
traumatized people are extremely important, the church must accept this emphasis,
that the negative ways people interpret what it means to count others more
significant than ourselves are coming from the sark. It is a matter of the
flesh recoiling from things it knows have happened, but with no spiritual
ability to know how to do what is righteous.
Right
after the things Paul said in Philippians 2:3-4, he writes, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is
yours in Christ Jesus” (vs 5). When we think of the “mind” that controls our behavior, there are only two minds, the
mind of the flesh, and the mind that is “yours
in Christ Jesus.” If we use the mind of the flesh to figure out what to do
about the painful experiences of life, we will always get fleshly, sarky
results. Our ideas will always fall short of what we would have believed, or
done, if we had related to the will of God in the Holy Spirit. And yes,
absolutely broken people can cry out to God in utter dependence on the Holy Spirit
to do all that God’s word has promised them.
The
thing that traumatized children of God need to know is that, if we have been
born again by faith in Jesus Christ, we have been given a new mind, “the mind of Christ.”[2] It is not that having this mind immediately causes the feeling of
trauma to go away. It is that we now have a new mind by which we are able to
process trauma differently than what the old mind was able to do.
So,
on one side, we must consider that we have the mind of Christ, this mind that
is ours in Christ Jesus. On the other side, we must continue to remind
ourselves that it is the church that has this mind. The traumatized among us do
not try to deal with the trauma of abuse alone, as if each one of us has this
mind of Christ, and now we are all expected to work on our “stuff” on our own,
saving the rest of the body of Christ the work of having to help us.
The
reality is that the body of Christ has the mind of Christ, and the mixture of
people in the church, at all different levels of maturity, stirs up the mature
to set the example for the weak, so that we are always dealing with things
together.
What
is sad is that, in many churches, instead of the mature setting the stage for
the weak to get help and healing for their trauma, those considered mature, the
“pillars” of the church, are often very immature people who have simply found a
way to control the playground, so to speak. They have developed safe roles
where people look up to them as the good Christians in the church, and so they
feel safe to lead the way, and control what the church is like.
However,
these people are not mature, and are not operating out of the mind of Christ.
They are both immature, and sarky (fleshly). Because of this, and because the
role they are playing hides the truth about their soul-condition, they live in
constant fear of being exposed. They cannot have a church that helps people
with trauma, and uncovers the ugly memories of abuse so that people can
experience the “comfort of love”[3] from God and his people. If they allowed such a thing as Spirit-led
ministry to traumatized brothers and sisters, it could expose the way they have
been operating out of the sark, rather than out of the Spirit. Everyone would
see that their “I’m a good Christian,” role was “selfish ambition and conceit,”[4] rather than an example of Christ-centered, Spirit-dependent faith.
The
thing that must encourage us from God’s word is that he has provided for us in Jesus
Christ so that we do have the mind of Christ, and there is a mind that is “yours” (meaning the corporate church),
and we find our hope and help by facing trauma together.
What
this should look like is that the whole church is influenced primarily by the
most mature members, the elders who have both the maturity to show what it
looks like to grow up in Christ, and the position of leadership that gives them
the approval of the church to lead the way. Paul has written a beautiful
description of what this looks like in Ephesians 4:11-16.
In
a church where the leaders are equipping the saints for the work of ministry,[5] and the church is doing ministry to build up the body of Christ,[6]the church keeps growing toward “mature
manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”[7]It is the maturing church, “speaking
the truth in love,” that helps us “to
grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”[8]
“Speaking the truth in love” comes from
the new mind of the church. This does not mean that everyone in the church
knows how to speak the truth in love, but that the leaders are leading, the
people are serving one another in love, and the church in its maturing journey
encourages one another with the wisdom that is from God,[9] so that everyone in the church grows up together.
This
means that the immature, and those broken by abuse, and the ones who are
shattered with terrible nightmares, come to the church so that the whole church
can speak truth to one another. We bring the things we are reading in the word
so that we can lovingly affirm the truths that God is speaking to us. We can
speak those truths to one another. We can remind each other repeatedly what God
has said, and how he has revealed his love, and how we are in this together as
his body, and how we have the mind of Christ.
When
we work together as the church so that we are growing up “into Christ… the whole body, joined and held together by every joint
with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body
grow so that it builds itself up in love.”[10]
Now,
what if when we heard, “when each part is
working properly,” we did not interpret this as “each part is in perfect operating condition”? What if, instead of
adding a sarky meaning to this (that we all better get our act together so that
we are the good Christians we are supposed to be), we saw the body’s working
properly as each part yielding to the mind of Christ about how we are doing
right now, and seeking what he would do for us through his body, rather than
what we can do for ourselves through sarky self-protection?
In
other words, there is a way that everyone can be “working properly” by showing up in poverty of spirit about how we
are doing; letting the Spirit lead us to mourn the condition of our souls, both
the sin that is there, and the mess that other people’s sins have made inside
us; humbling ourselves in the meekness that can identify that the specific
things we are struggling with, the memories that are overwhelming us, the
nightmares and panic attacks, cannot be fixed by any of our own self-dependent
efforts; and so we come from where we are, hungering and thirsting for the
righteousness Jesus Christ would bring to our inner being through our faith,
not through our trying to do good works.[11]
What
I’m trying to say is that the “in
humility count others more significant than yourselves,” part of the
picture does not mean that we deny how we are doing, or suppress our real
soul-condition because we don’t want to bother anyone. It doesn’t mean that
every single person in the church is able to stop and look around to grasp the
full impact of how every other part of the body is doing.
Rather,
it is describing the way of life of the church where the mature lead in
counting the rest of the church family as more significant than themselves, so they
can lead the way in teaching the church how to do ministry to each other. As
the leaders bring all the people together, and teach them to come as they are,
not as they believe they need to pretend to be, the most broken people who show
up and say, “help me please” are just as much “working properly” the way an injured member of the body should be
working to get better, as the healthiest are working properly in using their
gifts and love to build up the body of Christ.
The
problem is that broken people might experience a sarky feeling of guilt that
they are a burden to the church and shouldn’t bother anyone with their troubles.
Because there is a call for each part to do their part, the broken parts might
think they need to try really hard to help out while in their wounded and
broken condition. After all, running a program shouldn’t be too hard. It is
kind of encouraging to get the sense of approval that comes from making a
contribution, right?
However,
to participate in the church that way, broken people need to rely on self.
Their ambition to help while wounded is a self-based ambition. Their aim to
deny to anyone that they are wounded, while putting on a mask that appears to
be doing all the right things, is a self-dependent way of living. It is
self-protection trying to avoid further pain. And, because it is the sark, the
flesh, trying to figure things out, it will always choose the wrong way of
trying to live out what it hears from God’s word.
On
the other hand, when people come to God in their brokenness, and realize that
God’s work is done through the church, and that experiencing healing is the
best thing they could do for everyone, they can then admit how poorly they are
doing, contribute their part to the growth and maturity of the church by
undergoing whatever ministry they need for their freedom, so that, as they
heal, the church grows stronger and builds itself up in love.
I
share this only to point out that contributing our “part” to the growth of the
church doesn’t mean showing up to help run programs. Neither does it mean trying
to be strong, or pretending to be okay. The way that broken, wounded,
traumatized members of the body of Christ do their part is by receiving the
ministry freely, without resistance, without arguing and complaining, and so
experience the healing and freedom in them that helps the body get stronger and
healthier.
There
is a sense in which I would apply this exhortation to pastors and churches to
the place of the traumatized members of the body of Christ. “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for
they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an
account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of
no advantage to you.”[12]Notice that the leaders, the team of elders shepherding the church,
are “keeping watch over your souls.” Jesus
came to give rest to our souls,[13] and the elders watch over our souls to make sure our souls are
receiving all the ministry of Christ through his church.
The
church submits to the band of elders who watch over the flock, but with this
particular quality, that the congregation, “let
them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage
to you.” Speaking as a leader, I have never felt “groaning” just because some members of the congregation are
severely wounded and need the special care and attention of the body of Christ.
What causes frustration and sadness is not that people need a lot of ministry.
What
causes a pastoral struggle is when ministry is repeatedly offered to people who
won’t take it, and so they stay the same month after month, year after year,
never getting better, never growing stronger, never having the freedom to build
up the rest of the body in love. Even though it might sound noble to believe
they are doing it so as not to trouble the church, that only shows they are
listening to their sark, their flesh, which doesn’t ever get it right because
it cannot understand spiritual things. They are causing trouble to the church,
not by trying to avoid being a burden, but by holding back their place in the
body from the life of the Spirit that would first glorify God with their
healing, and then glorify God by their participation in ministry.
I’m
not sure if such a short look at how traumatized believers can help the church
by showing up to receive ministry can actually make the issue clear enough to
help. I hope that this at least whets the appetite for broken people to see how
they can contribute to the church by receiving help, letting people freely,
lovingly, and joyfully minister to them, experience healing and freedom through
the Spirit’s work in the body, and so grow up with the church to participate in
the things that God is doing.
If
nothing else, broken people need to realize that their self-protection fits the
description of selfish ambition. Resisting the work of the Spirit for their
healing fits the description of conceit (thinking they are of greater
importance than the Holy Spirit). Avoiding the ministry offered to them is
really looking out for their own interests. If these things were acknowledged, there
could then be some humble repenting of this self-reliance. Broken people could
count the leaders and helpers in the church as more significant than their
self-protective thoughts and feelings. They could look to the interests of
those seeking to do ministry in the church because those people are seeking the
interest of the wounded. They could trust God that he has given them people who
have both the maturity, and the spirituality, to do ministry in the Spirit
instead of in the sark.
I
am very aware of the failures of churches and pastors. However, I have operated
for at least two decades in the growing and maturing belief that if God’s word
tells me how things should be done, I can step out in faith to do his will
today knowing that he will have the right people coming together at just the
right time. I have seen this happen in personal reconciliation with people, in
people finding others ready to help them at just the right time, and groups of
people opening up to the work of God together so that all were growing up in
Christ even though it appeared to be a hodge-podge of needs, maturity-levels,
abilities, gifts, and ideas of what was going on. There is a way that we can
have the mind of Christ, which includes coming to Jesus to give rest for our
souls even while he is working in others to surrender to him as he uses their
lives to help others find his rest.
All
that to say, be honest about where you are right now, pray earnestly to know
what God is doing in you to will and to work for his good pleasure, and go work
that out in obedient faith with fear and trembling, trusting that God is also
working in the whole body of Christ to will and to work things in his good
pleasure that will match all the work he is doing in you. [14]
While
everything you need is found in Christ, he gives you what you need through his
body, the church. Come to him by gathering with people in your church who will
pray for the fullest experience of these things God’s word reveals. God will
certainly answer such a prayer that cries out for the experience of what he
himself has breathed-out into his written word.
“And this is the confidence that we have
toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if
we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests
that we have asked of him.”[15]
©
2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless
otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy
Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
Philippians 2:3
[2]
I Corinthians 2:16
[3]
Philippians 2:1-2, reminding us that God brings up bad memories that have never
experienced comfort because love seeks to comfort the heart that has
experienced the trauma those experiences have caused.
[4]
Philippians 2:3
[5]
Ephesians 4:12
[6]
Ephesians 4:12
[7]
Ephesians 4:13
[8]
Ephesians 4:15
[9]
James 3:13-18 contrasts the wisdom that comes “from above” with the wisdom of
the world, the flesh, and the devil, that causes the selfish ambition and
conceit Paul was talking about. The wisdom from above will lead the church in
its fellowship of caring for those who are still in need of comfort from the
traumas of life.
[10]
Ephesians 4:16
[11]
Based on the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12
[12]
Hebrews 13:17
[13]
Matthew 11:28-30
[14]
Philippians 2:12-13
[15]
I John 5:14-15
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