Living in Community

Today after catching a related post on Rick's blog (The Shambles), I was reading some of the articles on the New Attitude blog regarding church involvement and church membership. There was an excerpt from one of Mark Dever's books that encapsulates one of the reasons I'm so grateful for being a member of a church and for my church in particular.

By identifying ourselves with a particular local church, we are telling the church’s pastors and other members not just that we commit to them, but that we commit to them in gathering, giving, prayer, and service. We are telling them to expect certain things from us and to hold us accountable if we don’t follow through. Joining a church is an act of saying, "I am now your responsibility, and you are my responsibility."

Because of the sin that remains and in the interest of my spiritual growth, I need to be living a transparent life in community with other believers. One of the other articles mentioned how God often puts us together so that the gifts of one person fit with the weaknesses of another. In his wisdom, God builds us together as the body of Christ as we seek daily to serve, support and love one another.

This quote also provides a responsibility that can be easy to overlook. We must be willing to open our lives up to others and we must be actively caring for others around us. For me, it can be so easy to get caught up in myself and forget to encourage, speak truth and invest into the lives of my brothers and sisters. The Christian life is not "every man for himself". We have a responsibility to those around us. Unlike Cain, we are called to be our "brother's keeper" Gen. 4:9. Obviously, that doesn't mean that we point out sins without directing to God's grace, but we do need to be willing to get involved in each other's lives and to occasionally speak truth into another's life rather stand to the side while they drift from Christ.

I need to ask myself daily: How am I investing into the body of Christ?

Link: The Bible and the Member Badge