a holy temple in the lord
The following passage from Ephesians 2:21-22 has impressed upon me fresh implications concerning the nature of Christian community.
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
First, I am struck by the dynamic reality of Christian community as it is described in verse 22. We are being built together to become a hold temple in the Lord. The verb "to be" in this passage is the the present and ongoing tense, in other words a genuine community of Christian faith is continuously engaged in the process of construction. In my own experience, one of my unspoken desires has been to "protect" the community of which I am a part the moment I begin to feel a sense of real connection. There is a danger in becoming too comfortable within a particular fellowship, the moment the door is closed to welcoming others to be a part of the group, the dynamic DNA inherent within Christian community becomes undermined.
Second, I am impressed by the reality of Christian community that sets it apart from all other such manifestations. As Christians the relationship we share with one another is a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. The relationships we share with one another, united by the common bond of faith in Jesus, are becoming a temple and a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Far too often the community we find within the church falls far short of what it could and should be. Too often we are left with such a hunger for making a genuine connection and we have no choice but to look outside the church to find it. This is not to say that community outside the church is inherently bad or wrong in any way, but how much more meaningful could the church be if our practice reflected the reality that our fellowship is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit?
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
First, I am struck by the dynamic reality of Christian community as it is described in verse 22. We are being built together to become a hold temple in the Lord. The verb "to be" in this passage is the the present and ongoing tense, in other words a genuine community of Christian faith is continuously engaged in the process of construction. In my own experience, one of my unspoken desires has been to "protect" the community of which I am a part the moment I begin to feel a sense of real connection. There is a danger in becoming too comfortable within a particular fellowship, the moment the door is closed to welcoming others to be a part of the group, the dynamic DNA inherent within Christian community becomes undermined.
Second, I am impressed by the reality of Christian community that sets it apart from all other such manifestations. As Christians the relationship we share with one another is a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. The relationships we share with one another, united by the common bond of faith in Jesus, are becoming a temple and a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Far too often the community we find within the church falls far short of what it could and should be. Too often we are left with such a hunger for making a genuine connection and we have no choice but to look outside the church to find it. This is not to say that community outside the church is inherently bad or wrong in any way, but how much more meaningful could the church be if our practice reflected the reality that our fellowship is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit?
posted by Jason at 12:53 p.m.
2 Comments:
Is it possible that this is the nature of the way God deals with his people - through the rigors of the relationships fostered within community? The sense that I get from that Scripture is that the building of us into the dwelling place is an action of which we are the subjects. It is happening to us; almost without our permission. But more to the point I appreciate the sense of process that this verse portrays - that God is interested in changing us into something - something glorious like a temple - and that his hand is continually in it. Nice.
I often ask myself the question, "Is God working through me, or in spite of me?" Obviously, a sovereign God is able to do anything, even make 'the church' a temple of the Holy Spirit "without our permission"; but, is it also possible that we have the capacity to sabotage God's ideal with our own stubborn will? After all, in this very passage Paul was affirming the "fellow-citizenship" of the gentile Christians who were, in a sense, being relegated to the status of spiritual refugees by the Judiasers. Is it possible that our own selfish desires have the potential to undermine Christian community in the same way some Jewish Christians did when they demanded all new converts to observe the OT law?
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