“He that hateth, will counterfeit
with his lips, but in his heart he layeth up deceit. Though he speak favorably,
believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart. Hatred may be
covered by deceit: but the malice thereof shall be discovered in the congregation”
(Proverbs 26:24-26,
Geneva Bible).
One of the results of being gathered
into a group is that our inner nature is eventually brought out. In the Church
we are shown to be servants or power-hungry, no matter what flattery or smiles
we use. Our actions and motivations will be shown. This is one of the reasons
God commands us to congregate with people who are different from us in race,
socio-economic status, education, entertainment preference, etc., finding our
unity in a common confession of the faith alone. God uses our differences in
unity to expose us for what we really are as we interact with one another in
the gathering of the Church. Those who cannot tolerate this nakedness will
either be increasingly shamed in this nakedness (I’m still – after twenty years
– reminded of Anne Rice’s description of vampires: they don’t change, they just
become more of what they are) or will depart from the congregation of people
different than themselves (the more we build a congregation on elements outside
the confession – or refuse to be unified by confession – the less
accountability there is as we build a group of people very much like ourselves
by non-confessional standards).
God commands His children congregate
in Him so that the non-Him elements in the members of the congregation are
revealed for what they are...so that we may grow past them together.
I am struggling in this area of
discipleship this morning. I’m on my third night of sleep deprivation, taking
care of little ones in their illness. My bride leads a ladies’ class on
Monday mornings, so I prepared a healthy breakfast for the children. While they
were eating, I mixed some green chile in with an egg and threw it on the
griddle for myself. Just before I put the mixture on a tortilla, the youngest
gagged and vomited forth his banana, apples, milk, and honey-bun mixture (okay,
the breakfast was mostly healthy). I remained calm in this, but I confess it
was a fake calmness. In my heart, I was yelling, “what?! I don’t get to sleep or
eat?!” Mess cleaned quickly for the benefit of the other children. Little one
bathed and re-dressed. I took out my inner anger on the now-unappealing meal,
throwing it away with more aggression than necessary (out of sight of little
ones). Grrrrrr...deep breath. Lord, I am an impatient man. I can fake it so
many times, but I am impatient deep down...sometimes to the point of feeling
pretty unloving toward folks who trigger that impatience. I am a sinner in need
of a Savior at every moment, and being around people who aren’t as enlightened
and perfect (read heavy sarcasm here) as I am shows this very clearly.
It may not be vomit, but being in
the gathered Church means that people will do things around me and say things
to me that trigger my inner un-Christlikeness very quickly. It’d be easy to
leave them and identify with a group of people as awesome as myself, but I
wouldn’t grow there...except in the area of my own self-worship and self-righteousness. I need you to
show me to be what I am, that I may be thrown more and more upon God’s mercy
and grace in Christ and molded by the Spirit into the image of the One Who
loved me and gave Himself up for me. I cannot do that alone, and I cannot do
that with those who are more or less clones of myself. What I am will be
discovered in the congregation, that I may be conformed to the image of the
Son.
On Monday mornings and many other
times, there are seven abominations in me that I will never be rid of apart
from the Spirit’s means of exposing them and excising them from my being: the
gathered Church.
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