The assembly in which
none go hungry and in which the needs of all are met, with a conscientious and attentive
eye cast towards the wider community for the purpose of meeting the needs of
those outside their association, and not for the purpose of gaining honor for
their assembly but because of the example of their God that went to a cross and
was said to have suffered on behalf of His people and to establish His kingdom,
and as a component of their expressed desire to go to the lowest places and
people in order to share in their suffering and shame (taking it upon
themselves in a sense, as such an association would cause them to be viewed
more shamefully as well), would certainly serve to bring a level of
conviction.
Such a person,
witnessing the activity of the gathered church of the Christ, could very well
be called to account by all, especially if that calling to account is not a
condemnation of his or her sin as some tend to think of it (those things
referred to as “activities of the flesh”), but rather a calling to account that
causes that person to reflect on what it means to be truly human and one’s obvious
failures in this area.
The heretofore
uninstructed observer would be witnessing that which the Creator God has
intended for His divine image-bearers. The true working of the Spirit,
rather than being seen as something that results in a personal display of Spirit-led
activity, takes place as the covenant God’s Spirit flows through the
kingdom-modeling activities of His body and calls one more person to conviction
and account. As the Spirit works, gifting a man or woman to participate
in the kingdom of their God, re-shaping mindsets and transforming the heart so
that it stands in opposition to the values of a fallen world, while also being
ready to engage in ways to effectively impact and re-shape the values of those
that inhabit a fallen world, “The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and in
this way he will fall down with his face to the ground and worship God,
declaring ‘God is really among you.’” (1 Corinthians 14:25)
That deep-seated
knowledge of the responsibility to bear the divine image, along with the
failure to do so, springs to life. Without doing so as a means of
proof-texting, one can borrow from the letter to the Romans in order to
buttress the statement and the ideas that stand behind verse twenty-five to
possibly understand Paul’s thinking, as there he writes “because what can be known
about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For
since the creation of the world His invisible attributed---His eternal power
and divine nature---have been clearly seen, because they are understood through
what has been made. So people are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20).
The Creator God is put on (puts Himself on?) display through His kingdom
community.
As part of this same
process of understanding this portion of Paul’s communication, it is possible
to look to one of his speeches recorded in Acts, as he speaks about the “Unknown
God” of Athens, and about His power, His presence, and His purpose of revealing
Himself in the manner in which He has revealed Himself (His Christ and His
church), “so that they would search for God and perhaps grope around for Him
and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).
Through the gift of His Spirit, which is meant to shape an ever-increasing
portion of humanity into conformity to His own image, with this occurring by
certain but not limited manifestations of that Spirit that can be referred to
as individual gifts, conviction is brought about, and the Creator God receives
the glory that is due to Him. Bringing this about has always been part of
the required role of His people.
No comments:
Post a Comment