“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Gal. 5:24-26, NIV)
The Christian walk is a shared journey. We do not walk alone; others walk with us. In Paul’s letters to different churches, he encouraged them to journey together. The notion of interrelatedness and interdependence is woven throughout his epistles. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Cor. 12:26, RSV) We who are strong ought to bear the failings of the weak. (Rom. 15:1, RSV)
The new life into which we have been born through Christ is a shared life. This shared life of the people of God is described by the New Testament Greek word koinonia. Our best word in English is “fellowship,” a word far too limited to encompass its meaning adequately. Because we belong to Christ, we belong to each other. In The Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis addresses the value of “bearing with the defects of others.”
“Endeavor to be patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of others, of what sort soever they be: for thyself also hast many failings which must be borne by others. If thou canst not make thyself one as thou wouldst, how canst thou expect to have another in all things to thy liking? We would have others perfect, and yet we amend not our own faults. We will have others severely corrected and will not be corrected ourselves. The large liberty of others displeaseth us; yet we will not have our own desires denied us. We will have others kept under by strict laws; but in no sort will ourselves be restrained. How seldom we weigh our neighbor in the same balance with ourselves.”
Why is it we find it easy to judge and condemn yet difficult to love and forgive, when we know it is the only way of redemption? Consider questions like:
Do I have some jealousy which prevented me from celebrating the success of someone, even a loved one? Have I refused the word of another as truth because I resent the memory of a lie they told me? Have I participated in giving life to a morsel of destructive gossip? If I keep alive a destructive word, am I paying back someone for a wrong? Have I inwardly delighted in the misfortune of another?
Paul called believers to koinonia, when he counseled, “Each one should test his own actions.” (Galatians 6:4, NIV) Thomas à Kempis reminds us how to receive criticism in this passage:
“If thou be guilty, see that thou be willing to amend thyself; if conscience reproach thee not, resolve to suffer willingly for God’s sake. And why do such small things go to thy heart, but because thou are yet carnal, and regardest men more than thou oughtest? For because thou art afraid to be despised, therefore thou art not willing to be reproved for thy faults, but seekest the shelter of excuses. But look better into thyself and thou shalt acknowledge that the world is yet alive in thee, and a vain desire to please men. Let not thy peace depend on the tongues of men; for, whether they judge well of thee or ill, thou art not on that account other than thyself. Where are true peace and true glory? Are they not in me?”
Moment of Reflection: Do you “seek the shelter of excuses”?
Prayer: Loving Father, let your grace alone be how I measure myself and how I think of others. Amen.
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