Greet The Friends By Name

APPLICATIONS FOR OUR CONGREGATION — Let’s take a few moments to think through some of the implications of what has been said so that we can prepare ourselves to be the holy people God has called us to be. I urge each member of the Body to think of what the congregation is, and to consider what we must become. We are the Body of Christ, whether we understand that concept as fully as we ought or whether we still grapple with all that it means.

Whatever else is implied by John’s words, here within the church, among the people of God, we should expect to be with friends. Here there should be safety. Here, a wounded individual should find healing and shelter until he or she is again able to enter the fray. Here, the fearful individual should find fresh courage as he or she stands with others who accept the timid as the equal of every other Christian. Here, the weary should find rest among the people who will stand guard as they refresh themselves until such time that they are able to take up the burden of the conflict once more.

Too often the churches, acting as political entities, have consumed those who are weak or weary or wounded. Unbiblical thinking seems to predominate among many of the churches of our Lord, so that we tolerate ungodly behaviour because we do not wish to hurt anyone’s feelings, even as we attack the wounded and shun the weak and the weary because they do not measure up to our artificial standard. Christianity within too many of the congregations of Christ consists of a cloak for our lives with which we attempt to hide who we really are, hoping that no one notices our hypocrisy. The world is not fooled, however, nor is God deceived. All we have done when we engage in such self-deceit is to dishonour Christ and render the church weak and vulnerable before the enemy of our souls. There is need for this church to determine that we will be friends, honouring Christ and building one another and encouraging one another and consoling one another. In that context, consider what we must do if we will truly be friends and if we will make the church into the living Body of Christ as He intended it to be.

If we will be friends, we must determine that we will build one another. Above all else, the people of God must recapture what it means to be servants of the True and Living God. I heard of a congregation this week that wants to “hire” a preacher, but they bruit about that they are still entangled with their former pastor and hence cannot hire a preacher. I suppose they have a problem, but it is a problem of their own making. God appoints whom He wills to be pastor; but congregations seem to assume they can hire whom they want.

A pastor is responsible to teach those whom God entrusts to his care, protecting the flock from assault from vicious predators. The work of the pastor is never conducted in isolation from the remainder of the flock, for each member of the Body is a servant of God, appointed and gifted by the Spirit to perform some particular ministry that He has determined is vital to overall health of the church. Each member of this assembly is a servant of the True and Living God. You are vital, but you are not indispensable. God will use you, and He wants to do so, but He will not wait while you decide whether you will serve as He has called you to do or whether you will ignore His appointment.