The book of Acts presents a picture of a life, of a church life, that was very much contradictory to the typical life at that time. Why was there a need to have another life besides the contemporary, worldly life that believers had back then? The believers lived a life most people did not understand—they were viewed as crazy to live such a life together. Before this pandemic hit us, you probably never thought about this question concerning the church life today. But when we come to this very challenging time, a challenge facing the whole world, you’ve probably taken some time to think about this: why are we living together and for what purpose? It is just like your family life. During normal days, your family value doesn’t get challenged. It is not until something happens in your family life that you start to think about what brought your family together, what’s the purpose, or what’s the core value of your family. This pandemic has really helped us to have a deeper understanding about what is missing in our past church life and our past earthen living.
The church life in Corinth suffered all kinds of problems. How could Paul face all of these problems? What was the solution to all of the divisions? Through the book of 1 Corinthians, we see that all of the internal controls to having a real church life are to exercise that first gift of what God wants us to have in our human living—love. Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians gives us a taste of this most excellent way. In the book of Genesis, God created man with His image and likeness. There is an expression from that life. So when we open the Bible, we come to the major attributes of God’s image: number one is love, number two is light, number three is sanctification (which is holiness), and number four is His righteousness. But among these four major attributes, His love is first.
What is love? Love is a Person, love is issued out of this Person’s life. When God created man in His image and likeness, it was not just creating an outward image but also with the image and likeness of the inward attributes of God. So there is something special between God and His created human being. There is a purpose for you and me to live as a created human being. But something happened along the way. That purpose, which is to be the expression of His image and likeness, has been lost. God, in His eternal desire, wants to have that back. If you open the Bible and read the entire Bible, there is the struggle between human living and the living of God’s people. That struggle is to express that original attribute of God in our earthen living. If you look at the church life in the early days, compared to today, we live in a very different value now. However that original value was very much personified to be expressed from that love. That love is not a charitable love; it is not a love from generosity. The love is a Person, so that God’s Person can be experienced and enjoyed. So there is a need, there is a necessity for us to be recovered to live as a human being is supposed to live.
Among all of God’s attributes, Paul emphasised the excelling way of love. If you reread chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, if you really look into what Paul was saying, everything related to this love is from the new person; without that inward attribute, love is just a theory without substance. As we come to this challenging time, I hope in our church life, we can be recovered. It is not the deed of love, it is the attribute from this life that should be expressed to become a personified sphere that the local church life should have. This is the personified life that you and I need to live a real human life on the earth.
I think we should ask ourselves a question—why are we here? When our family life is challenged, there is something that needs to be restored. Likewise, our church life needs to be restored. I’m thankful for this pandemic. We are able to live together more closely than ever. We got exposed more than ever. We have problems, just like the church in Corinth had problems. But the solution is not just to fix the problem. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞. This is something we need to think about so we do not just use God’s love as a title but rather that we may have this personified God’s love. In the church life, we can have a physical meeting like this or we can have it over the internet, but no matter what we do, we should share the image and likeness as the ultimate strength and substance of our living together. I hope that when we are scattered physically at home we will always remember that we are here for a reason. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟. May the Lord really help us through this pandemic and through our churching on this very specific point. We need to be recovered. Amen.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering 5/9/2020, not reviewed by the speaker.)