Thursday, June 03, 2010

Love God, Love Others

I heard this last night:

"The love of Christ is inextricably united with the love of the Church." Dwane L.

One of the things we get when we become a Christian is a new community. (I heard this again from Mark Driscoll yesterday as well)

Dwane continued..."If you say you love Christ, but you do not also love the Church, it is like saying I love you, to someone, but I can't stand your family."

Can we love Christ, yet refuse to go to church and be a part of the assembly and corporate worship and Bible study?

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Heb 10:25

Christianity is a personal Faith, but it is not to be a private Faith. I find that when I go to church, I am less likely to continue being selfish because I interact with other member of God's family. Not completely, but the more I go, the better off I am because I need to keep hearing about the cross. And I need to keep hanging out with His people. Among other things it gives me a boost to go out and share in a more loving manner. So much more can be said, but no time.

DB

2 comments:

Kwame E. said...

DB wrote:

«Dwane continued..."If you say you love Christ, but you do not also love the Church, it is like saying I love you, to someone, but I can't stand your family."»

I for one don’t like various members of the semi-metaphorical family all that much. However, this also does not stop me from interacting with them. So this sort of sentimental approach to spuring people toward Christian fellowship does not appeal to me at all.

Actually, the Hebrews 10.25 approach also rubs me the wrong way, not because there is anything wrong with the Scripture (and there is not) but because of common crude forumlations of the approach. It is enough for me to know from various passages of Paul’s epistles that believers should bless other sheep who are part of a common fold which is led by Christ; crude uses of Hebrews 10.25 instead feel like someone’s condemning me to a a life of continual torture of every Sunday having to meet and greet and suffer blithering idiots, or silly people, or people whom you simply do not like and with whom you have no chemistry, and all the disagreeable things that people do and will always do. In other words, it behooves everyday Christians and bloggers to do more than to quote just “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing” right before moving on to other issues and concerns, the foregoing being the full extent of their exhortation that Christians gather with other believers around word and sacrament.

This is not to say that either Dwane L. or DB are guilty of this; I’m just sayin’....

D.B. said...

I understand not liking various members. For me, though, it is more of..I don't interact socially very well, so it is sometimes hard to do certain things. Which is one reason I think it is important to go--to get me a little out of my own bubble for a bit.

I consider the Hebrews passage as a passage for the necessity of the believer to get themselves into a local congregation. Because it can be hard to encourage each other if you're not around real people. I think there is a problem with "doing church" online because you do lose the physical interaction of a local body. [Though, admittedly, sometimes the interaction online can be more meaningful, open, and engaging than you might get on any given Sunday.

What would you propose is a better way to encourage those who say they are Christian, but only go to church on Easter or Christmas?

Can one be a "good Christian" and never go to church?

I have struggled with this myself- But I know how I can get when I miss too many church services for frivalous reasons. I am more prone to selfishness and self-righteousness if I simply neglect gathering with believers "around the Word and Sacraments".