In my
pondering through Scripture, I often have to remind myself to consider what I
am reading through the biblical mindset of the one body of Christ, rather than
thinking of it only in its application to me personally. It is too easy to fall
into the world’s independent worldview and assume that everything I read in
Scripture is just between me and God. Anything he instructs in the letters to
the churches falls on me to figure out and perform.
In this
erroneous focus, how well I am doing rests in how well I am doing. The measure
of everything to do with my life is just between me and God. I am either strong
or weak. I am either succeeding or failing. If anything is wrong, it's up to me
to fix it.
If we allow
this independent thinking to rule the church, everyone rises or falls based on
only their own behavior, or their own experience of the things God speaks
about. This creates the false image of the church hero who does everything in
God’s word better than everyone else. It also causes some people to stand out
as utter failures at doing what they are told. In-between is a whole mob of God’s
children who pretend to be okay because they don’t want anyone to know that
they are not doing as well as they put on.
When I look
at Scriptures through the mindset of the one body of Christ, and apply the
exhortations and instructions to what it looks like for God’s people to do
these things together, I find a far more hopeful picture. I will use my present
focus on, “Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, rejoice,”[1]to
illustrate.
If I read
this through the individualistic mindset of the world, I see only that God
expects me to rejoice in Jesus Christ always. It doesn’t matter how I am doing,
or what I am going through, it is up to me to stay connected with Jesus in such
a way that the overriding characteristic of my life is rejoicing. When I find
it too hard, I must take responsibility for dealing with me and God in whatever
ways are required for me to turn my frown upside down, so to speak.
The fact is
that, for many of God’s children, there is too much hard stuff going on in us,
and around us, for us to successfully “obey” this exhortation. This means that,
when rejoicing in Jesus is just between me and God, those days where I find it
impossible to rejoice are a failure. Add too many of those failure-days
together, and I become consumed with frustration, and then hopelessness. Life becomes
too hard, and all I have left is to find some church-approved escapism, or do
my best to pretend so no one will harass me for my failure of a Christian life,
or just stay home and do the just-me-and-God-in-nature counterfeit of life.
On the other
side, when we look at, “Rejoice in the
Lord always,” as an exhortation to the whole church as the one body of
Christ, everything suddenly looks different. This is about a church rejoicing
in the Lord always. This is about the combined fellowship of pastors, and
elders, and congregation. This includes all the different maturity levels of
congregants. This involves those who are weeping and those who are rejoicing,
all at the same time.
So, as anyone
in the church faces their own inability to rejoice, they meet together with
their church that seeks to rejoice in the Lord always. Their church has learned
never to deny how anyone is really doing (hence weeping with those who weep,
and rejoicing with those who rejoice[2]). However,
they are a church that pursues joy. They join the apostolic ministry to “work with you for your joy.”[3]
When someone
who is struggling with inner heartaches, or has just been hit with joy-crushing
news, is in a church that pursues joy together, they can look forward to prayer
meeting night, or their small group meeting, because they know that the church
will connect with them in their heartaches in order to return them to joy. The
church will pray the prayers that promote the fellowship in which God heals the
brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.[4]
In a church
that seeks to rejoice in Jesus at all times, and in all ways, God’s children
can be honest about every failure at joy, every overwhelming inner broken thing
they don’t even understand, while knowing that the pastors and elders are
working together to return them to joy. They know there are mature members of
the congregation who have weathered the most joyless circumstances imaginable,
and have so found Jesus as the pearl of great price,[5]
and the treasure hidden in the field,[6]
that now they lead the way in rejoicing with that “joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,” because they
are, “obtaining the outcome of your
faith, the salvation of your souls.”[7]
While I have
often been punished for sharing my feelings with church folk, I still believe
wholeheartedly that my freedom and maturity in rejoicing in Jesus always require
deeply personal fellowship with God and his people at the same time. Jesus said,
“These things I have spoken to you, that
my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full,”[8]
and the apostles said, “we are writing
these things so that our joy may be complete.”[9]
Did you
notice that? Jesus said, “my joy,”
and “your joy.” John received this
and passed it on as “our joy."
When Jesus’ joy fills the church so that the church feels our joy increasing
and maturing, even the most wounded of God’s children can come into the church
with absolutely nothing to contribute to church life except their need. The
rest of the church can wrap such brothers and sisters in the arms of love so
that the rejoicing of the one body of Christ fills the individual members of
the body with constantly growing joy.
If you
consider yourself quite hopeless in the joy department, see yourself as a wounded
member of the body. Would you would allow an injured part of your body to take
the time to heal while the rest of the body sends healing life to the injuries?
In the same way, join with other believers to seek the body-life in which a
rejoicing church ministers joy to the whole body, no matter how joyless any
given member of the body feels.
After
spending considerable time pondering what Paul meant by calling the church his “joy and crown,”[10]I
now know something more of what it means that we rejoice in the Lord always
within the widest possible expressions of the body of Christ. If older brother Paul
can make me feel treasured and prized across the distance of almost two
millennia, Jesus can lead churches to treasure and prize one another into
rejoicing in the Lord always. Together.
© 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 4:4
[2]
Romans 12:15
[3]
II Corinthians 1:24
[4]
While Psalm 147:3 speaks of God healing the brokenhearted and binding up their
wounds, Christians must factor this in to the life of the body of Christ where Jesus,
as our head, now works his healing ministry to the brokenhearted through the
love and spiritual gifts of the church.
[5]
Matthew 13:45-46
[6]
Matthew 13:44
[7]
I Peter 1:8
[8]
John 15:11
[9]
I John 1:4
[10]
Philippians 4:1
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