Longing to See Christ in You
Christiansbelieve that faith plays a special role in life—we believe that life itselfdepends on faith because we believe that when faith begins, spiritual lifebegins. In fact, faith is so central to Christianity that Christians oftenrefer to themselves simply as “believers.” So why is it so unusual to ask each other aboutwhat we actually believe?
When is the last time you loved someone enoughto ask what they believe?
Whenwe think someone is not yet a believer, we may muster up the intestinalfortitude to ask what they believe, but as soon as they nod affirmatively that,yes, they do “know Jesus,” we stop asking and forevermore assume the best. We takepeople at their word that they are Christians, without ever asking whether ornot they actually believe like Christians.
Isn’tthis sort of like assuming your child's new babysitter knows all the pertinent info about their allergies and medications and not asking for a slightly more detailed answer than a nod? If belief is really a life or deathissue, maybe the most loving thing we can do is to help ensure that thosearound us believe well. In fact, this seems to be the main point of a passagein the third chapter of the Book of Hebrews:
7 Therefore, asthe Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear hisvoice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in therebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with thatgeneration,
and said, ‘They alwaysgo astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be inany of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the livingGod. 13 But exhort oneanother every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may behardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have cometo share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.(Hebrews 3:7-14, ESV)
Thepassage goes on to provide more detail on the interpretation of this quote fromPsalm 95 (verses 7-11 above), but what we’ve shown here is enough to make thesimple point we’re trying to make: we are commanded to watch out for each otherwith respect to whether any of those in our Christian community have “an evil,unbelieving heart, leading [the person] to fall away from the living God.” Andthe way we are to go about doing this is by earnestly encouraging (exhorting)each other toward belief and away from unbelief (“thedeceitfulness of sin”), every single day. Is this day still called “today”?Then it’s time to encourage those around us to belief.
We need each other, so the spiritual health of those around usaffects us.
Afew posts ago we wrote about the fact that to be spiritually whole we desperatelyneed the community of other believers that God has placed us in and in whichthe Holy Spirit dwells (see the post here). Above we haveestablished that caring about other believers’ belief is the loving thing todo, and if it’s true that we need each other, then caring about other believers’belief also the wise thing to do. If we don’t care about the belief of thosearound us, why do we have any confidence that they actually believe likeChristians and are the people that God tells us we need for spiritualwholeness?
It may feel nosy, but we want to be a church that is willing tofeel nosy for the sake of love.
Thisis what "Christ in you" in our mission statement means: I care deeplyabout whether the people who are around me at Redemption Church areactually Christian. We want everyone who is a part of the church to saywith full honesty to those around them, “One of my primaryconcerns in being here is that Christ be in you.” (The fact that we want thisto be a primary concern is why it’s part of our mission statement.)
Sowe’re taking a few simple practical steps toward caring about “Christ in you.”First, we are currently getting to know each other and trying to understand themission and values of the church in our DNA meetings (more info here). Second, we aretrying to rediscover what the most important elements of our faith are onWednesday nights at our (Re)Discovering Jesus meetings (more info here). Third, we arekicking off partnerships geared toward having the regular opportunity to talkabout deep things, real things with another real person fighting this goodfight of the faith. Please (seriously, please!) take some time to find out moreabout these pairings here, and thencontact us to let us know you want to be a part of one.
