12.1 Belonging
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another (Romans 12:5).
That the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually (1 Corinthians 12:25b-27).
Therefore, having already put off [set aside] the false {story of an old self}, let each one speak truth {the good things of Christ} together with his neighbor BECAUSE we are members of one another (Ephesians 4:25 – JSV).
To Belong. I have always longed to be part of something bigger than myself, but NOT as a cog in someone else’s wheel.
To belong. – I have never really thought about this term in my writing before now, yet I find it going into the deepest essence of my heart.
I want to come home. I really, really want to come home. And home is not being dead in Christ in the heavens; home is right here on this earth. Home is Church. Church is where I belong.
A Quality of Reciprocity. Yet only brief periods of time in my 18 years of community experience did I feel at home. Nonetheless, I treasured those times and measured everything else by them.
To belong. What does it mean to belong? Belonging has both a social and a spatial sense. To belong is to have a place among people. For me to belong to a place, that place must belong to me. Yet I must also share that place with others, each of whom also feel the same about it. A place all by myself is whatever it is, except it is not “belonging.”
Belonging is a quality of reciprocity.
A Place for Me. One of the most wonderful things about being married to Maureen for me was that now I have a place. Where do I sit? That’s easy – I sit next to my wife. It was being married that gave me a place. Yet in full reciprocity, being married also gave my wife a place.
Coming home and being at home is one of the greatest values to me in life. Even my love of travel and adventure is enlarged for me, given full meaning, because home is always waiting at the end of the journey. I always felt 100% at home with my parents; it is my deep hope that my children always feel 100% at home with us, wherever that might be.
Being “Daddy.” I have never had experience with the aftermath of divorce inside my acquaintance. I would suspect, without personal knowledge, that divorce splits apart any possibility in a child to know that deep sense of belonging that I always took for granted with my own parents. We can conclude that belonging is a quality found inside of the binding commitment of love, that is, marriage.
Holding any of my children’s hands, when they were growing up, as we walked through any public place did as much for me as I assume it did for them. I belonged. That was my place. That was where I fit. “Daddy,” spoken to me in utter tryst is just about the sweetest word I have ever heard.
Two Parts of Belonging. I have never really thought about, before now, the certainty in which I “belonged” that I found in both my parents, both together and one on one. Now I realize there were two absolutes in place that translated into that certainty of belonging.
The first absolute was that my parents were personally committed to me, whatever the cost to them. And the second was that my parents, and especially my dad, always made sure that I knew that I was under no obligation to them. Rather, I know now how my dad bore the cost of my freedom inside his own tears and faith inside of God. 100% commitment and 100% freedom are the ingredients of belonging, of being members of one another.
Members of One Another. Consider again Paul’s three statements in the first of this lesson, each written at three different times and places in Paul’s writing career. There is in them every sense of belonging as I have described. Yet the belonging in “members of one another” is even greater than the belonging of family and marriage.
“Members of one another” is a body, a living and dynamic relationship. And the elements that bind us together as a living body are Blood and Spirit, sharing the same life, drinking of the same Spirit. Spirit is coming up in the next sessions; here we want to consider the living blood flowing from one to the other, a Life Force that gives each of us place and makes us integral parts of each other.
Levels of Shelter. Before bringing in again the points from Revelation 12:10-11, I want to state briefly some things I see in the seven points of sheltering roof from Patterns of Home.
First, the governance of the community must be visible to all, that is, all adult members must be part of that governance. That governance is extended out, then, in appropriate ways, to make the entire community a safe place. This extension of governance takes in several of the points. One important consideration in structure is a definite process in place to welcome visitors.
Then, a final consideration is the variety of roof/ceiling heights. In other words, give different governance responsibilities to each one, including, even, the youth. Being responsible – “this is mine” –, that is, ownership, is essential to belonging.
The Gift of Belonging. Let’s talk about that a bit more before going to the verse of Victory. I view the modern way of raising children as child abuse. I am speaking of children growing up in an anti-place, forced by the violence of the state to sit all day with kids their own age doing work that is immediately thrown in the trash, work no one needs or wants.
What gives a child place is being needed, making things valued by others, being responsible for something that matters. Other children can never give a place to a child. That place of respect and belonging is given only by the principle adults in a child’s life. Consider a child given a garden patch of their own – and then making a meal from their garden for the family and the honor given them. – That is the gift of belonging.
Victory. Now salvation, and power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb and through the word of their testimony, not having loved their own self-stories until [as far as] death (Revelation 12:10-11).
The seven points from the verse of Victory then are these. 1. Cast down all accusation against others. 2. Possess all authority and power to do so. 3. Discern truth from falseness. 4. Be life to others. 5. Speak Christ your only life. 6. Set aside false self-argument. 7. Endure until all are set free.
The center is “Be life to others,” that is, the flow of Blood.
Qualities of Blood. Let’s start with two apparent qualities of blood. First, blood carries in it the elements of life needed by every member of the body and second, blood flows from one member to the next. Each member takes what it needs from the blood, and then gives two things to the blood in return. First, it gives to the blood its contribution of supply to the body. Each member also gives its waste products to the blood to be carried out of the body.
Everything each cell needs to live and to build itself up comes to it from the blood. Everything the cell gives to others passes through the blood. Everything the cell needs to be rid of is carried away by the blood.
The Life Force. What is blood? Blood is a metaphor of the Lord Jesus Christ alive in our hearts, but Jesus in a very specific function and role. Blood is Jesus as the life force by which the Body lives and by which the Body is one.
The assignment for this session will be to read five chapters from In His Image by Dr. Paul Brand, the chapters on blood. As you read, apply the metaphor of the blood in every instance to Jesus as the life force among us as His visible form.
Now here is the reality. Everything needed by each member, though it comes in the Blood, yet it comes from the supply of other members, and every impurity taken away by the blood is disposed of through the workings of other members.
Giving One Another Place. The blood of the body represents the same quality as the cause of the perfect coordination of a flock of birds – giving place to one another. I have no place, except you give me place in your heart and life. You have no place, except I give you place in my heart and life. We each have place when we need what each other gives and give what each other needs. The central quality of Victory is to give life to one another.
Now, consider the first three points – Cast down accusation with power and discernment. In other words, remove from your brother or sister all that might offend by taking it into yourself, into the Mercy Seat and into forgiveness.
Koinonia. Then, consider these words. Therefore, having already put off [set aside] the false {story of an old self}, let each one speak truth {the good things of Christ} together with his neighbor BECAUSE we are members of one another. You see, this is exactly the same word as Revelation 12; John’s vision is just the gospel in a third form. The word “neighbor” means those in close proximity, and the speaking is “together with,” that is, fully reciprocal.
Then these words. That the sharing, the koinonia of your faith may be energeoed by the acknowledgement of every good thing inside one another inside of Christ Jesus. Jesus as the life force of the body and “koinonia” or “sharing” are the same thing.
Supply and Words. Then we see that “casting down accusation” on the one hand, and “having set aside the false self” on the other, are also the same thing. The false self is the child of accusation; accusation is the creator of the false self. Christ is not your life; you have a life not Christ. The lie and the curse.
Yet we know that getting rid of accusation sets no one free, nor causes anyone to live. Christ fills the Body first through the supply I give you and you give me, and second by the voice, the words of the acknowledgement of Christ from me to you and you to me.
An Example. Here is a fifteen-year-old girl who grew a patch of garden and then prepared a meal from that garden for the family. She was responsible for her work and directed others, including even the “leaders” of the community in that work. In that patch of garden and in the preparation of the meal, she was the boss, the sheltering roof. As she gives her value to the family, so the very Body of God is knit together. And as they speak of the good things of Christ in her, so Father is made known.
This is one small example. We then weave this same concept of belonging all through our daily life together.
Four Things Together. This is the essence of sheltering roof, of our victory over all that opposes God. The purpose of all assault is to create the false story of self. We protect one another from that assault by four things always working together. Those four things are inside each of us and given in full reciprocity among us.
| One |
Full
Reciprocity
|
Another | ||
| Forgiveness | Supply | Forgiveness | Supply | |
| Speaking honor | Laying down | Speaking honor | Laying down | |
Refusing accusation by swallowing up all offense; giving and receiving in deed AND in word; having already refused to impose obligation for self.
Laying the Foundation. When we built the Graham River Tabernacle in the fall of 1993, I had first directed the brethren at Graham River to excavate the site for the building and to pour the foundation. When all the many brethren arrived for the work, the foundation was already in place, and thus all the rest of the construction could begin immediately.
Being symmorphosed with His death is always past tense, a work already finished. The apostolic, that is, having laid down any need to pretend or to impose obligation on one another, is the foundation of all that we build together. So then death energeoes in us (the apostolic), but life in you (2 Corinthians 4:12).
Belonging Happens. The one who says, “Die, brother, die,” is not in agreement with the death of Christ and is building on a false foundation. The one who says, “Live, brother, live,” sees the cross as already finished and now speaks Christ the only life you are.
Belonging happens only when giving and receiving are fully reciprocal, 100% mine and 100% yours. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation… (1 Corinthians 3:10).
The next lesson is “The Cost of Discipleship,” that is, the foundation for all that is built, then followed by “Learning Christ,” the one thing we set ourselves to do.