Life Together

November 1, 2016

Life Together

But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God himself has taught you to love one another.

1 Thessalonians 4:9

The New Testament churches lived in a cultural context quite different from twenty-first century USA. The differences can be quite challenging to us as we seek to apply the teachings of scripture to our lives today. Central to the cultural differences is how the New Testament church took on the characteristics of first century family life. In most of the first churches, to become a follower of Jesus meant, for the Jews, expulsion from Temple or Synagogue life. For both the Jews and Gentiles coming to faith in Christ, their allegiance to Jesus and his followers often came at the loss of their family relationships as well as those of their friends and neighbors. For these people, their church became their new family.

In many churches today, it is commonplace for the members to use the adjectives, brother or sister when referring to other members of their church. In the New Testament churches those were literal descriptions of the other believers in their church. As such, the level of care and concern for one another mirrored that which was the norm for first century families.

We live in a different time and place. The strongest relationships we have within our churches pale in comparison to those of the Thessalonians. Even so, Paul is showing us God’s will for our life together within our churches, the Body of Christ.

(If you are interested in thinking deeper on this subject, check out Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In the book, he recounts his unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years in Germany.)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.