All Up In Your Business

A culture of individual autonomy wreaks havoc on the concept of Biblical community and corporate discipleship.  Everywhere we look the enlightened individual seems to reign supreme – self-confidence, self-esteem, self-sufficiency are buzz words of our day.  

The cultural shrapnel penetrates the church as well.  Even inside the body, it seems that people are content to do life alone, unwilling to battle sin in community, and generally apathetic about progressive sanctification in the context of the church.  

The argument goes like this:  My relationship with God is my business. Who are you to meddle in my life and point out sin?  It seems way too personal for the church to force me to pursue holiness as an implication of Biblical community. 

And so we settle.

Settle for sitting in a room once a week. 

Settle for reading the Bible a little. 

Settle for simply feeling guilty about ongoing, indwelling sin.

Settle for autonomous Christianity.

The Biblical model doesn’t seem to make this an option.  The unity Christ purchased in the cross forces us to pursue Christ in the corporate context.  Biblical community (i.e. the church) demands a context where people know you deeply, where people know your recurring sin patterns, where people point out your blind spots, where people care for you in joy and sorrow, and where people push you to obedience. 

That seems to what the author was saying in chapter 10 when he writes:

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

This verse is not about church attendance.  It seems that the context of this verse demands much more than simply attending a gathering called “the church”.  The writer of Hebrews says that the reason that we don’t neglect to meet together is so that we can consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds.  Therefore, it is entirely possible to obey the command to meet together and fail to obey the motive behind meeting together, namely to stir one another up to holiness. 

Therefore, it is possible to meet together regularly and never practice Biblical community. 

And thousands of American Christians do just that – meet together and miss Biblical community. How sad, that the grace gift of the church is undermined by our unwillingness to know and be known. 

There is no such thing as a church that is too personal.  In fact, if you attend a church where people are not consistently all up in your business you are simply not practicing Biblical Christianity even if you attend church every week.