A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire;
He rages against all wise judgment. (Proverbs 18:1)
"All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way..." (Isaiah 53:6a)
There really is such a thing as strength in numbers. Usually, the bigger
an
army, the better their chances against a foe. The larger our circle of
friends, the more counsel we have on hand when making difficult decisions.
It's also good to enjoy the sharing and assistance of family, and to have
the input of parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters.
Likewise, God does not expect the church or individual Christian believers
to live or exist in isolation. Each believer and each Christian
fellow****p
is a vital part of the local neighborhood and community. And as a group,
the church is a vital part of each believer's life.
During His ministry, Jesus very often had a crowd with Him, even when He
traveled from town to town. It was from that crowd that He eventually
chose
12 men specifically to always be with Him, and to continue representing
Him
after He was gone. They were to be witnesses of His life and message, His
works, death, and resurrection.
Even after Jesus ascended into the heavens, the church was about groups of
people, not isolated hermits. When the church was officially born, Peter
spoke to a crowd gathered in Jerusalem, and afterward some 3,000 new
believers were added to the church. These people met "from house to
house"
on a regular basis, sharing their food and resources, their fellow****p,
and
their faith with each other. And as a result of God's kindness, thousands
more came to know the Lord in the years that followed. And that's just in
the vicinity of Jerusalem.
Wherever the message of Jesus went, church fellow****ps were born. Often,
as
a result of evangelical preaching, whole groups of people came to know and
trust in Jesus. And when they did so, they would begin meeting and
praying
together. They met in homes, in the temple courts, in Jewish synagogues,
and in other public places. They formed regular groups and read the
Scriptures together, prayed together, and prayed for each other.
Christians
wor****ped, sang, and shared their common faith together. Christians
pulled
together and helped each other.
As the Scriptures say, they were one in the Lord. The church was not
about
lots of isolated people, who were all alone. The church was a family, a
brotherhood, a body, a kingdom without walls or palaces.
God's will for His people is that they be as one. That's what Jesus
Himself
prayed for, and what the apostles often pushed for among believers. The
church is pictured in the Bible as a body, as a bride, a house, a temple,
a
fellow****p. It's not presented as many scattered individuals who each do
their own thing and have little or nothing in common with others. Even
when
there was only one or two, they would share their faith in Jesus Christ
with
strangers, and soon there would be a new group of believers to meet with,
pray with, and share things together. That's what the living church was
and
is meant to be.
Isolation as a lifestyle.
Sometimes terrible cir***stances will force a person into isolation.
There
are places where men and women are put in prison for clinging to the faith
of Jesus Christ. Other believers have been forced out of family settings,
and even out of religious organizations because they insist on wor****ping
and trusting in the living Jesus Christ. Christians are sometimes forced
to
suffer loneliness for their faith. And being all alone, they will also
sometimes suffer depression and even physical illness.
But in our society today we too often have a different reason for walking
alone.
Many men choose to live in isolation. They're unwilling to get along with
other people. And they sometimes drag their spouses and children with
them
into areas where Christian friends and even neighbors are kept away.
Some
women also choose to stay away from the church family, preferring their
own
company -- or even the company of unbelievers -- to that of fellow
Christian
believers.
While it's true that some "fellow****ps" actually drive people away,
mistreating innocent people, too many today seek isolation in order to
think
and live as they please. They reject genuine Christian faith, and reject
a
truly Christian way of life. It's not usually very difficult to tell who
is
who.
We all know that God lives and speaks. We know that the living God is
active in every human life, and especially active in the hearts and lives
of
those who love Him. God truly lives and speaks.
But many today have chosen to live as though God only speaks to them, or
as
though God will say just about anything to anyone. They make a mockery of
faith in Jesus Christ by living and even thinking as unbelievers. Yet
they
claim to have a vital relation****p with God.
They ignore the counsel of other believers, the witness of the church
itself -- not only the church today, but the entire witness of God's
people
down through the ages. They say they believe in God, but they behave as
though He only showed up very recently to act and speak in their lives.
Even the witness of Scripture means little or nothing at all to them.
In choosing to neglect their brothers and sisters, they are separating
themselves from God.
True believers will always bear witness to the words of Scripture. And
the
Bible will always bear faithful witness to the true working of God in a
believer's life. Jesus Himself said of the Scriptures, as a witness to
His
own life, saying, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you
have
eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.."
The Scriptures bear faithful witness to the real Jesus Christ and His true
working in human lives. And if the Scriptures point faithfully to the
true
Christ, then we should pay attention to what they say.
The Bible tells the truth about what God has said, and what He expects of
all people, and what He still plans to do. True believers will often
examine their hearts and lives in light of the Word of God in Scripture,
to
make sure they're on the right track, and that the "voice" they're
following
is the true voice of the living God. They know that God is not insane, or
weak, or wishy-washy. He will not claim that something is true about sin
or
human nature in one age, and then later change His mind to say that a
different thing is true. His words stand forever.
But those who deliberately isolate themselves from other believers will
not
stand on the plain and evident teachings, warnings, & promises of Holy
Scripture. They reject the Bible's message, preferring their own ideas
and
feelings, their own likes and whims, to the clear and faithful words given
to us by the Spirit of God. In so doing, they show us the kind of people
they really are -- fools and even unbelievers.
God does not isolate us. He places us in the church. We are separated
from
the world, being set apart to God. But the Spirit of God does not
separate
us from each other. As members of Christ's body we long to spend time
with
other believers. We grow together in fellow****p, and in friend****p. We
seek to learn together, as each member of the body shares whatever the
Lord
has given to us. That's God's grace at work in us.
Jesus warned that there is one sin that will not (and cannot) be forgiven:
the blaspheming of God's Holy Spirit. No one can receive God's grace
while
they go on rejecting the very Presence of God. When God speaks by His
Spirit, through the faithful testimony of Scripture, convicting human
hearts, we must respond to Him in genuine faith, or we're lost forever.
If we reject what the Spirit of God says, and what He has always said, and
what He's caused to be written, and put into the hearts and mouths of all
who know Him, then how can we be saved? We cannot continually reject the
Spirit of God, and still be saved. At some point we must surrender,
embracing the message, the Presence, and the power of God that convicts
and
reveals and saves lost sinners.
The church of God knows this. We know it because we have come to know
God.
And we've received the Spirit of Christ into our own lives, receiving
eternal life through Him. We have one thing in common with all true
believers everywhere -- a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that
faith draws us to gather and to share our very lives and hearts in
fellow****p with other believers.
In Jesus Christ, we're not alone, but have been made a living part of
God's
building, the body of Christ -- the church.
Jim
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