Doing Life Together

For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.
(Matthew 18:20)

God's design is community, a community of believers. The person who claims to follow Christ, but is not part of the body of Christ, lacks an important element found in a mature believer. A mature Christian spends time with Jesus by spending time with the larger body of believers. It is characteristic of a disciple, to share life together with other believers.

In the description of the new born church in the book of Acts, we find that the believers shared life together. They had fellowship with one another. They ate together, prayed together, learned from the apostles together, and shared all things in common.

It has been said that there is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian. This statement is true if for no other reason than Jesus letting his disciples know that where two or more are gathered together, he is in their midst. The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to believers so that we can serve the body of Christ, the church. Interestingly, it is not we ourselves who recognize that we are mature believers. It isn't we ourselves who affirm our calling into service and recognize our gifting. It is the body of believers who do these things. This is because as Christians, we do life together. We don't go it alone if we are mature in Christ.

It is impossible to carry out Jesus' command for his disciples to love one another as he has loved them and us, unless we are with other disciples. The fruits of the Spirit are expressed in community. Love requires others to love. Peace and patience are evident to those around us. Faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, and kindness are demonstrated in personal interactions. It is in community that we believe, forgive, and are forgiven.

Growth towards Christian maturity

Committed to Myself

Why would anyone gather with the followers of Jesus unless they are a follower? Apart from Christ we have no interest in spending time with Christ's Church. If for some reason we do find ourselves with the gathered church, our interest is not on doing life together with Christ and his disciples. We spend our time on ourselves, for our commitment is to ourselves not on Christ and his followers. Rather than investing in the body of Christ, we invest in the lusts of our flesh. The time we have is shared with others at our digression, not at Jesus? digression.

Invited to Gather

For us to grow in Christ we must obviously be drawn to Christ. The Lord draws us to the body of Christ primarily through his body. The drawing typically comes in the form of invitations to gather with the fellowship of believers. We may be invited to spend time with a single believer, a small group, or even join in a larger gathering. It may be in a home, restaurant, or at a church. We may be invited to a gathering of the Church to worship. Periodically we join the fellowship and other times we decline. Unbeknownst to us, there is a spiritual battle seeking our sway our allegiance, Christ drawing us and the enemy deceiving us. We are not yet able to recognize the truth of Christ, but we are starting to draw near. As we are invited and gather, we begin to develop relationships with those who are part of the body of Christ. It is in the relationships we form with the people who are the Church that shows us the love of Christ and the forgiveness of sin. There is something about those who are clearly followers of Christ that attracts us to Jesus. We don't know what it is but we are starting to desire to know Jesus as they know Jesus.

Entering the Body

Christ is drawing us to himself. When once we were turned off by the Church and had no interest in the followers of Jesus, now we are considering the step of integrating into the body of Christ in a local church setting. We eventually take that step, some of us quickly and others slowly. The reason we take this step is because we have been spending time with Jesus and his disciples. We may not describe it that way, but that is a factor in our maturing in Christ.

Given by God

Growth in Christ brings with to us new insights into the truth that everything we have has been given to us by God. Our time, relationships, and resources are all gifts from God. This does not make sense to us at first because we have been trained to believe that what we have is ours and comes to us through our own efforts. It can take time to break free of that view and embrace the truth from God. In this time of growth, we move from seeking to manage what we have as well as we can. But a shift is taking place. What we thought was ours, including our time, we begin to see as ultimately belonging to and given by the Lord. We move from seeking to manage our time to learning to use it wisely. Before we looked at our time spent with Christ's Church through our self-centered lens by which we decided how much to engage based on what was in it for us. We were getting involved because we wanted to be served. But our perspective has changed. No longer is it about us. We see the Church as God's gift to us, but we also see ourselves as a gift from God to the Church. We now look to serve rather than to be served. We are becoming more like our Lord. We are not yet living in the fullness of Christ, but we are drawing near and being transformed each time we gather with the body of Christ.

Life Together

Maturing in Christ eventually leads us to the point where in full surrender to the Lord we understand and joyfully live in the reality that all we have is actually God's. We are excited to see how God uses us. Our lives are not our own, we have been bought with a price. We no longer try to usurp God's will with our will. As God's will is done in our lives, we find that He does with us what He wills. The beautiful thing about this is that there is great peace and joy. We know God's character and we trust him completely. The time we spend with His people may be wonderful at times and very trying at other times, nevertheless we know that He is working in and through us. Our time spent with Christ is spent in fellowship with the Church, which takes place primarily in a local context through share life together with other believers. But our fellowship also goes beyond the local church. We experience fellowship with believers wherever we encounter them. Our time is not our own, it is shared with the body of Christ. Not only are we doing life together with other believers in Christ, but we are also now inviting others who do not yet know Jesus to gather with us and learn from him. We invite people to come and see this Jesus who has so captivated us that we find our greatest joy in spending time with him and with his Church. We realize that it will take a while for others to know the joy of spending time with Jesus. We accept that some may never follow Jesus or mature in him. Still, we invite and spend time investing in people because knowing Christ is with us, even to the end of the age.