Today's post is courtesy of Mike Eerie on his podcast Voxology, particularly episodes 491 and 492. I edited for readability (podcast to prose can be tricky).
"Paul’s emphasis is on the church being transformed. The world could and may well be transformed through the church being transformed, but that’s the order. That’s the priority. The church is to be transformative by being the church. The role of me as a Jesus person is not to change other people as much as it is to be the one who is primarily changed.
The primary way the New Testament talks about sharing our faith is through the witness of the church community. The way the world is transformed is by being the church. Here are commandments to the church for how to do that from the epistles in the Bible.
• be at peace with each other
• wash one another's feet
• love one another
• love one another
• love one another
• love one another
• love one another
• love one another
• be devoted to one another in brotherly love
• honor one another above yourselves
• live in harmony with one another
• love one another
• stop passing judgment on one another
• accept one another then just as Christ accepted you
• instruct one another
• greet one another with a holy kiss
• when you come together to eat wait for each other
• have equal concern for each other
• greet one another with a holy kiss
• greet one another with a holy kiss
• serve one another in love
• don’t become conceited, provoking and envying each other
• carry one another's burdens
• be patient bearing with one another in love
• be kind and compassionate to one another forgiving each other
• speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
• submit to one another out of reverence for Christ
• in humility, consider others better than yourselves
• do not lie to each other
• bear with one another
• forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another
• teach one another
• admonish one another
• make your love increase and overflow for each other
• love each other
• encourage each other
• encourage each other
• build each other up
• encourage one another daily
• spur one another on towards love and Good Deeds
• encourage one another
• do not slander one another
• confess your sins to each other
• pray for one another
• love one another deeply from the hearts
• live in harmony with one another
• love each other deeply
• offer hospitality to one another without grumbling
• each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another
• clothe yourselves with humility toward one another
• greet one another with a kiss of love
• love one another
• love one another
• love one another
• love one another
• love one another
• love one another
Being the church is the best, most faithful means by which we influence the world. We have plenty of historical examples of how culture was changed by the ‘bottom up’ witness of the church. Some people call this “faithful presence’. Some people call it ‘prophetic witness’. The church is an alternative political community that lives in contradiction to the world, but is not detached from it. The gift the church gives the world is being distinct from it.
We do want transformation of the hearts and we do want justice, but governmental politics can't bring about the righteousness and justice that God wants. That has to be brought about in the church. As Dallas Williard has noted,
“The political task of Christians is to be the church with a political alternative the world would not otherwise know. We are to challenge the powers instead of trying to replace them. This doesn't mean that the church never interacts with the state; it means that our interaction takes the form of….discriminating engagement in which the church makes no effort to cultivate a relationship of privilege with the powers.”
Prophetic witness fundamentally distrusts all political power no matter who carries it. It challenges the powers instead of trying to replace them. To do this, it must maintain some form of distance from the state.
Prophetic witness resists the spectrum of options created by Babylon (for us, Republican and Democrat). It believes that the church can be concerned about evils that exist on one side of the political spectrum without thinking that the other side is particularly faithful in confronting those evils.
Christians are invited to see the world through the lenses of the cross. At the cross, sacrifice is power, humility is honor, and loving our enemies conquers dragons. We can and maybe should have opinions on issues - -abortion, war, immigration, sexuality, health care and so on - but we are called to view these issues through the lens of the Cross.
Communities of the Cross should absolutely care about justice and confront oppression. It's part of our identity. Yet we don't follow Babylon's script of what this caring must look like. We pursue justice and righteousness by being the community of the Lamb by embodying the kind of place most citizens are trying to vote into existence.”
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