2. Objections
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
This text is intended to be primarily positive regarding life together. In Lesson 1.1 however, I addressed the “evil report” spoken against life together.
In this lesson, I want to respond to several accusations against Christian Community that are often voiced – that it is (1) a context for abusive and religious control, (2) an opportunity for sexual immorality, (3) a form of communism in which the individual is merged into a group “blob,” (4) a “greenhouse” distraction from the “real” purpose of Christians in this world, and (5) the innate prejudice that most Christians are jerks.
HOWEVER, just as Caleb and Joshua agreed that there were giants in the promised land, so I have my own specific and personal objections to community as I have known it.
My Own Objections. My primary difficulty with direct involvement with the same people every day is coming under the judgment of others. I know that many will despise me when they discover my human weaknesses. Walking daily as the Mercy Seat towards one another does not happen overnight. Even worse is coming under religious manipulation – “Do this to prove to us that you are a ‘man of God.’” Such hardness makes relating with others nearly impossible for me.
And so, I have divided all of these, my objections and others, into twelve “reasons” for objecting to Community. You will note that I have lined these up in opposition to my twelve personal reasons for commitment to life together.
1. Community Is Not for Everyone. This first objection to living in a Christ Community is the only one that is both real and entirely of God. God did not create all humans for this way of life, probably not even the majority. It is a mistake for people who are not made for community to feel compelled to be a part of one because of religious beliefs. Jesus reveals Himself through each as God made each and He does all things well.
Nonetheless, even though many are not made for community, visiting for a period of time is of great benefit for all. More than that, to be a believer in Jesus requires a level of commitment to others in a local church greater than that known by most Christians today.
2. Conformity to the Group. Group think is as terrible of a curse as is the blinders worn by “rugged individualists.” And a compelled conformity to “group think” is certainly enhanced by the environment of life together and is a giant in the land that must be withstood.
Nonetheless, conformity to group think is a normal part of human life everywhere. To claim that community is the cause of “conformity to the group,” is part of the denial in the one accusing who is actually also fully under “group think.” At the same time, the godly practice of honoring one another inside of life together can be mis-judged as conformity to the group by those who themselves live in conformity to the world.
3. Religious Legalism. Religious legalism is a horror. And yes, when such awfulness is found inside of Christian community, it is so stifling that many come to feel unable to breathe, almost. And yes, many expressions of community through church history have been marked by religious legalism, using words on the pages of the Bible to impose external requirements on one another.
But Church is not the cause of such wickedness, religious bullies who love to use external word to control other people are the cause. And such people are everywhere regardless. Political legislators and bureaucrats, using police to enforce their bullying are no different. The world, in fact, is more filled with religious bullying than anything ever known inside of Church.
4. A “Greenhouse” of Escapism. Here is one of the silliest accusations against Christian community I have ever heard, that living in community is living in a “greenhouse,” separate from the winds of reality known by Christians living in the world and attending regular churches.
What rot! Yet it is astonishing how often this stupidity is raised. Community is where the rubber hits the road, where all the word of the New Testament is applicable to our lives daily. Community is where you face all the difficulty that exists between one another. Community is where people see the real. Church in the world is entirely escapism. It’s living in an environment that requires very little of the individual. Modern churches are for people who have little desire to engage with God in the winds of His revelation.
5. Elitism. Elitism is not a community problem; neither is it a “Christian” problem. Elitism is a human problem. Where there are humans, the giants of elitism WILL stalk the land. Every word of accusation comes out of elitism. In fact, those who accuse people who live in community of “elitism” are, themselves, practicing one of its more virulent forms.
Paul wrote against sectarianism right from the start. That’s why he said that God calls only losers into His Church. And yes, elitism, coming out of a superior arrogance in the human heart, is a danger to guard against. Nonetheless, the idea that community causes elitism will work to ensure that it cannot be dealt with. Our enemy is one thing – not living inside of Jesus through faith.
6. A Form of Communism. Christian community is NOT communism or socialism. This is a false accusation hurled against us by many who don’t even understand what these things are.
I hate the word, “commune.” It contains all sorts of connotations that have absolutely nothing to do with the Christian communities I have known. This is the only accusation – that you are living in a “commune” so that you can do “hanky-panky,” to which I will respond with anger and with incisive exposure of fault in the one accusing.
Community is neither socialism nor communism nor does it have any relationship with those false and violent perversions.
NOT Socialism. Socialism and communism are the same thing; they differ only on the path to victory. Socialism prevails by bribing with stolen goodies; communism prevails by violence and murder. The end result is the same, the erasing of the individual, and the granting of all power and ownership to that particular gang of thieves who call themselves “the state.” This vile perversion is then called, “sharing in common.” Except the only things shared in common are immorality and deprivation.
Christian Community is 100% libertarian. Libertarian does not mean “libertine.” It means the non-aggression principle; that is, violence in any form is never an option. It means that at no point is anyone ever compelled in anything.
7. Despising Other Christians. Here we come to what is the primary reason that most object to Christian Community as God’s end goal. And that reason is, quite simply, that they despise other Christians and are determined to live a “Christian life” free of any commitment to all those fleshy people whom they despise. This is the sin of Adam, and you have it, dear reader, big time, that is, until God sets you free of such awfulness.
I am certainly not exempt from such a thing; that is why I place God Himself as the love that must be between us. There is no other option. But to separate ourselves from others of like-minded faith is to separate ourselves from love, and thus, from God.
8. Abusive People. The problem with abusive people inside of community, versus abusive people everywhere else, is that they have closer and more regular contact with those they are abusing. At the same time, because of the general climate of seeking after God, abuse is less frequent inside of Christian Community and, when it occurs, stands out against the backdrop of respect and kindness.
Nonetheless, most of the hurt people have known or remember from their community experience comes from individual actions that are unkind and even abusive. Some of that abuse is embedded in Nicene Christian thinking itself and is found in all Christian gatherings. Malevolent abuse, however, cannot be allowed to continue; the one abusing must go.
9. Sexual Immorality. The insinuation that Christian Community is filled with sexual immorality is a sick accusation, one that reveals the thinking of the accuser, but says nothing about life together.
I lived in Christian Community directly with more than 500 people. Almost all of them were godly and kind people who loved Jesus. To be honest with you, sexual immorality, though carefully guarded against by wise boundaries, was simply not an issue. Yet those boundaries are very important and must be carefully maintained, especially in the relationships of the youth, though not in a legalistic way.
As I said, the one accusing is setting forth his own soul, no one else’s.
10. Religious Deception. Most people hold a strong link in their minds between Christian Community and religious deception. But religious deception is everywhere. The cause of religious deception is that God is not known; life together is a structure of living, and not a “source” of anything.
All religious deception is found in the human mind, a mind that sees sin and the flesh in others and not Christ. The mind of Christ sees Christ everywhere it looks; the mind of the flesh sees sin in the flesh everywhere it looks. It is my argument in this text that there is only one way out of religious deception – not knowing God – for all, and that is Father Himself revealed as Love among us in life together.
11. Preferring the World. There is no place for the exaltation of this world inside of the Church, period. Yet the church in this world has married herself to the world. Christians like to identify themselves with the unregenerate, for some strange reason, imagining that the associations of the ungodly somehow represent “God.”
And so many will choose against community because they prefer the world. I strongly support their choice. Such people have no business trying to live in community, for such a community will not seek the Lord. You can call that elitism if you want, but I will walk only with those who have zero heart connection with the falseness and criminality of the institutions and governments of this world.
12. Navel Gazing. One of the more important objections to Christian Community is that it easily becomes a life unto itself, that is, continuous introspection with little connection to the outside. I agree. In fact, in my vision of a Christ Community, I include a very strong balance between the life of the family and interaction with people outside the community.
For a pool to be living water, there must be both an inflow and an outflow.
Yet a church gathering that ignores the needs and place of its members for the sake of “outreach” is as unhealthy as an isolated community that knows only itself. Examine yourselves – do good to all – both in full balance.
The Fruit of Christ. Christian Community does not create any problems for anyone. What life together does is to expose those problems already inherent inside of humans.
When I left the communities, I knew fully all the problems that I had known inside of such a way of living. I also knew that many who left those same communities blamed that fellowship and the community way of living for the problems. It did not take me long, however, to discover those exact same problems in the world and in worldly churches. The cause of all problems is the human. The answer is union with Christ.
Do not accuse Christian Community falsely, especially of those things you yourself practice in your own sphere. You will find giants of opposition inside of Church, most certainly, but in life together is also the fruit of Christ found nowhere else.