Why Must Members Live Near the Church?
"And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts" – Ac 2:46
Immediately after the first clear gospel sermon is preached at Pentecost, Luke gives us a little cameo into what this new spirit filled church looks like: radical community. People didn’t get their salvation and then just leave off as individual Christians, the entire idea of individual Christianity is entirely foreign to the Bible and all of church history until very recently. To be saved is to be added to a body and to then be an active part in the body. One of the primary results of the Spirit falling and indwelling a people is that those people are now connected in a particular and familial way, and so those people now have a certain familial relationship with and responsibility to one another. We have all been adopted by the father, so we find ourselves also with new siblings that we are tied to, for good. You cannot get the Father without also getting the siblings.
Luke says, “They devoted themselves to the fellowship.” Everyone says they want real meaningful community, but it is one of those things that cannot be had without devoting yourself to it. This is especially true in our modern culture which is the most individualistic society that has ever existed; we fool ourselves into thinking we can have real community without physical proximity and togetherness because we know that those things are often inconvenient.
Listen to just a few of the MANY clear biblical COMMANDS about what we are to do for one another: Love one another deeply, Teach One Another, Carry each other’s burdens, Outdo one another in showing Honor, Bear with one another, put courage in one another, stir one another on to love and good deeds, confess your sins to one another, show hospitality to one another. You don’t have the option of living life just you and Jesus, and every letter in the New Testament was written to churches about how to treat each other in your church whom you are living alongside. The commands aren’t “forgive other Christians,” but “forgive ONE ANOTHER.” There is a mutual-ness to the commands; One Another-ness assumes connection, it assumes physically being with. God intends for us to be involved in one another’s lives.
The reason one must live within 50 miles of the church (and that’s pushing it) is because this is what church is meant to look like and it becomes nigh-impossible if you are nowhere near the same community as your church. If you live further than that, we’d want to help you be a member of a church where you live, OR, to move closer, which wouldn’t make sense to the world, but makes perfect sense to Christians who have been charged to go and make disciples through a local embassy.
Immediately after the first clear gospel sermon is preached at Pentecost, Luke gives us a little cameo into what this new spirit filled church looks like: radical community. People didn’t get their salvation and then just leave off as individual Christians, the entire idea of individual Christianity is entirely foreign to the Bible and all of church history until very recently. To be saved is to be added to a body and to then be an active part in the body. One of the primary results of the Spirit falling and indwelling a people is that those people are now connected in a particular and familial way, and so those people now have a certain familial relationship with and responsibility to one another. We have all been adopted by the father, so we find ourselves also with new siblings that we are tied to, for good. You cannot get the Father without also getting the siblings.
Luke says, “They devoted themselves to the fellowship.” Everyone says they want real meaningful community, but it is one of those things that cannot be had without devoting yourself to it. This is especially true in our modern culture which is the most individualistic society that has ever existed; we fool ourselves into thinking we can have real community without physical proximity and togetherness because we know that those things are often inconvenient.
Listen to just a few of the MANY clear biblical COMMANDS about what we are to do for one another: Love one another deeply, Teach One Another, Carry each other’s burdens, Outdo one another in showing Honor, Bear with one another, put courage in one another, stir one another on to love and good deeds, confess your sins to one another, show hospitality to one another. You don’t have the option of living life just you and Jesus, and every letter in the New Testament was written to churches about how to treat each other in your church whom you are living alongside. The commands aren’t “forgive other Christians,” but “forgive ONE ANOTHER.” There is a mutual-ness to the commands; One Another-ness assumes connection, it assumes physically being with. God intends for us to be involved in one another’s lives.
The reason one must live within 50 miles of the church (and that’s pushing it) is because this is what church is meant to look like and it becomes nigh-impossible if you are nowhere near the same community as your church. If you live further than that, we’d want to help you be a member of a church where you live, OR, to move closer, which wouldn’t make sense to the world, but makes perfect sense to Christians who have been charged to go and make disciples through a local embassy.
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