As a child I was often said to be compliant. My dad blamed the college I attended for making me so independent. But I didn’t go to Berkley I went to a Bible College. All I have been able to connect to becoming so independent was the pain I felt in my senior year of high school. It awakened my need to build a protective wall around myself. Whatever the case, I did become quite independent. I loved Sammy Davis’s song “I Gotta Be Me”. That way of thinking seems harmless and in some respects is healthy. However, our society’s interpretation of it is the very antithesis of Christianity. Self has become a god to which we often bow in worship.
Often when a person practices something the Bible forbids, their normal rebuttal goes something like this, “You can’t judge me. This is only between me and God and it does not hurt anyone else.” The fact is, Adam and Eve’s sin was personal, but it has continued to cause all humanity to suffer because they violated God’s instruction. When Achan secretly stole what God had forbidden for the Hebrews to take from Jericho (Joshua 7:5) all the Hebrews suffered and thousands died, including Achan and his family. When a person privately holds a root of bitterness against someone, it defiles not just him/her but many (Hebrews 12:15). No one is a solitary Christian. If a person is a believer, that person is a member of the body of Christ. In the context of one man’s sexual sin in the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul warned, Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough (1 Corinthians 5:6b, NLT2)? If a person thinks their failure to give God His tithes; their indulgence in sexual activities outside a marriage (Bible term is fornication), their gossip or ugly attitude, etc. is just between them and God; their Bible illiteracy is showing and they are living in delusion. The relationship between us and others is so sensitive that even the appearance of evil (1 Th 5:22, KJV) must be avoided for the sake of others. When a believer violates what God has instructed, their selfish sin infects the spiritual body especially those closest to him or her.
Christianity is counter-cultural which means; while the current in the river is flowing downstream, Christianity is forcing its way upstream. I am not proud of my earlier years of independence. I have shed tears of sorrow for it and God has forgiven and enabled its chains to be broken—but to be transparent, if I’m not careful it still pops its head up from time to time. It is a constant battle for me to swim upstream. In the midst of my sporadic failure in this matter, I’m committed to getting back up and following this spiritual truth, if one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad, (1 Corinthians 12:26, NLT2). Falling as I do, I lean on this truth in the Bible that reads, the LORD himself watches over [me]! The LORD stands beside [me] as [my] protective shade (Psalm 121:5, NLT2). Each of us has a strong nature but the Christ within each of us is stronger and will defend us! Although I get tired and fall, He will pick me up and send me on down the path of His righteousness. In that light … since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us (Hebrews 12:1, NLT2) We do live a solitary life in that no one can live our life for us. However, we are not solitary Christians!
Thanks for sharing