I Corinithians 8:13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

We live in increasingly isolated times. It seems more and more people do all that they can to stay in their house. They work from home if possible, order home delivery of goods, DoorDash meals, (or do drive thru). We have come to believe that it’s a good thing to maintain an ever-decreasing list of the people with whom we have face-to-face contact. We will do our best to substitute physical contact with social media (and maybe get very worked up if somehow the algorithm lets us down and an unwanted visitor gets through!)

But when we read the New Testament we get a much different picture. Paul, in writing to the Church at Corinth assumes that they will be together with some regularity. (I don’t know - maybe, like every Sunday or something like that!) When they come together, according to Paul, they actually have some obligation to one another as regards their relationship with God!He is pretty direct in saying that what I do has a direct affect on other Christians and therefore becomes a responsibility for me to manage my own actions.

My walk with God is not just a ‘Jesus and me’ thing. Other people’s needs and feelings enter into it. I can’t curate my own ‘God experience’ from the comfort of my home and make it just exactly how I want. Paul and the other New Testament writers knew that to have a relationship with Christ meant to be a part of a Church. And they knew that that meant face-to-face interaction. That kind of interaction will necessarily involve times of tension that gives us an opportunity to exhibit Christlikeness.

If I claim a relationship with Jesus, then I absolutely have a nonnegotiable obligation to be with and strengthen other followers of His near me (which we call the Church.) He gave us brothers and sisters for our good and theirs.

How can we better encourage one another today?

Blessings, 

Pastor Russ