House Church Talk - Isolation

[jim sutton]

Isolation is a problem for some in hc, because they are too far away from 
other Christian believers, or they truly cannot stand to be with the 
Christians nearby, or the religious structure of local churches has literally 
forced the issue -- telling them to conform or get out.  Sometimes even hc 
groups make no room for us.

I understand those things.  They're very real problems.  But we each need to 
examine ourselves, and make sure that we're taking the right path.  Are we 
truly seeking a better form of fellowship, or are we simply unable (or 
unwilling) to get along with other believers?

The Bible says:

A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; 
He rages against all wise judgment.   (Proverbs 18:1)

There really is such a thing as strength in numbers.  The bigger an army, the 
better their chances against a foe.  The larger our circle of friends, the 
more counsel we have on hand when making difficult decisions.  It is good to 
enjoy the sharing and assistance of family, and to have the input of parents 
and grandparents, brothers and sisters.

Likewise, God did not create the church to live or exist in isolation.  Each 
believer is a vital part of the local neighborhood and community.  And as a 
group, the church family is a vital part of each believer.

Jesus nearly always had a crowd with Him, even when He traveled.  It was from 
that crowd that He chose 12 men specifically to always be with Him, and to 
continue representing Him after He was gone.  They were to be witnesses of His 
life and message, His works, death, and resurrection.

When the church was officially born, Peter spoke to a crowd gathered in 
Jerusalem, and afterward some 3,000 new believers were added to the church. 
 These people met ?from house to house? on regular basis, sharing everything 
together in common.  Thousands more came to know the Lord in the years that 
followed.  And that?s just in Jerusalem.

Wherever the message of Jesus went, church fellowships were born.  Groups of 
people came to know and trust in Jesus, and when they did so, they began to 
meet together.  They met in homes, in the temple courts, Jewish synagogues, 
and in other public places.  They read the Scriptures together, prayed 
together and for each other.  They worshiped, sang, and shared their common 
faith together.  As the Scriptures say, they were one in the Lord.

God?s will for His people is that they be as one.  That?s what Jesus Himself 
prayed for, and what the apostles often pushed for among believers.  The 
church is pictured in Scripture as a body, a bride, a house, a temple, a 
fellowship.  It is not presented as scattered individuals who each do their 
own thing and have little or nothing in common with others.

Sometimes terrible circumstances force a person into isolation.  Men and women 
are put in prison for clinging to the faith of Jesus Christ.  Others have been 
forced out of family settings, and even out of church organizations because 
they insist on worshiping and trusting in the living Jesus Christ.  They are 
sometimes forced to suffer loneliness for their faith.  And being all alone, 
they also sometimes suffer depression and even physical illness.

But today we too often have a different reason for walking alone.  Many men 
choose to be alone with their own thoughts.  They?re unwilling to get along 
with others.  And they sometimes drag their spouses and children with them 
into self-imposed isolation.  And some women also choose to stay away from the 
church family, preferring their own company -- or even the company of 
unbelievers -- to that of other believers.  Some of these men and women are 
not alone for the sake of the truth, but for the sake of doing as they please. 
 It?s usually easy to tell who is who.

We all know that God lives and speaks.  We know that the living God is active 
in every human life, and especially active in the hearts and lives and minds 
of those who love Him.  God truly lives and speaks.

But many today have chosen to live as though God only speaks to them, or as 
though God will say just about anything to anyone.  They make a mockery of 
faith in Jesus Christ by living and thinking as unbelievers, and yet they 
claim that they have a relationship with God.  

They ignore the counsel of other believers, the witness of the church itself 
-- not only the church today, but the entire witness of God?s people through 
the ages.  They say they believe in God, but they behave as though He only 
showed up very recently to act and speak in their personal lives.  Even the 
witness of Scripture means little or nothing at all to them.

True believers will always bear witness to the words of Scripture.  And the 
Bible will always bear faithful witness to the true working of God in a 
believer?s life.  Jesus Himself pointed religious leaders to the Scriptures, 
as a witness to His own life, saying, ?You search the Scriptures, for in them 
you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me?.?   

The Scriptures bear faithful witness to the real Jesus Christ and His true 
working in human lives.

The Bible tells the truth about what God has said, and what He expects of all 
people, and what He plans to do.  True believers will often compare their 
hearts and lives to the Word of God in Scripture, to make sure they?re on the 
right track, and that the voice they are ?hearing? is the true voice of the 
living God.  They know that God is not insane, or weak, or wishy-washy.  He 
does not claim that something is true in one age and time, and then later 
change His mind to say that another thing is true.  His words stand forever.

But the men and women who deliberately isolate themselves from other believers 
will not stand on the plain and evident teachings, warnings, & promises of 
Holy Scripture.  They reject the Bible?s message, preferring their own ideas 
and feelings, their own likes and whims, to the clear and faithful words given 
to us by the Spirit of God.  In so doing, they show us the kind of person they 
really are -- fools and unbelievers.

Jesus warned that there is one sin that will not (and cannot) be forgiven: the 
blaspheming of God?s Holy Spirit.  No one can receive God?s grace while they 
go on rejecting the very Presence of God.  When God speaks by His Spirit, 
through the faithful testimony of Scripture, convicting human hearts, we must 
respond to Him in genuine faith, or we?re lost forever.  

If we reject what the Spirit of God says, and what He?s always said, and 
caused to be written, and has put into the hearts and mouths of all who know 
Him, how can we be saved?  We cannot reject the Spirit of God, and still be 
saved.  At some point we must surrender, embracing the Presence and power of 
God that convicts and reveals and saves lost sinners.

The church of God knows this.  We know it because we have come to know God. 
 And we have received the Spirit of Christ into our own lives, receiving 
eternal life through Him.  We have one thing in common with all true believers 
everywhere -- a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  And that faith draws 
us to gather and to share our very lives and hearts (fellowship) with other 
believers.  We are not alone, but have been made a living part of God?s 
building, the body of Christ, the church.

As believers, then, God does not isolate us.  He places us in the church.  We 
are separated from the world, being set apart to God.  But the Spirit of God 
does not separate us from each other.  As members of Christ?s body we long to 
spend time with other believers.  We grow together in fellowship, and in 
friendship.  We seek to learn together as each member of the body shares 
whatever the Lord has given to each of us.  That is God?s grace at work in us.

Jim