This blog post is a look at a pervasive theme in American culture that has crept into the Church at large. I am not saying this is true of every church that gathers for worship in the United States, but is something that I have noticed is a particular struggle of ours. By ours, I am placing myself squarely in my own sights.

The idea of individualism permeates American culture, if indeed we can summarize only one collective culture. Many of us dream of being the hero- the person who takes an impossible situation on our own back, beat the odds, and win the acclaim of those we save. We stress self-reliance. We relish independence. We promote our own agenda above that of others. We look out for number one, as they say. Unfortunately, this ideology also permeates the American Church.

Many people who attend worship services go from one congregation to another with reasons ranging from not getting anything out of the teaching to not liking the music. Certainly, there are times when one should leave a congregation, such as when they stray from biblical truth. Most of the time, however, the reasons are less than valid. They are symptoms of a bigger problem: we have fostered a consumer attitude towards Christianity. We ask, “what do I get out of the service?” but rarely do we ask, “what am I to give to the body of Christ?”

Before I go any further with this, I do want to emphasize that there is a personal, individual component to Christianity. Certainly, justification is a personal event. Paul is able to say that “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”1 We must be careful, in challenging individualism, that we don’t swing the pendulum too far in the opposite direction. With that said, let’s move on to look at some instances where the Scripture does de-emphasize the concept of individualism.

The Church
The idea of the “church” in the Scripture is never one of a building. Instead, the word translated “church”2 is used of a group of people, and can be translated “assembly” or “congregation.” In Louw and Nida’s lexicon, the word is found under the semantic domain “Groups and Classes of Persons and Members of Such Groups and Classes.” It underscores a collection of people. The word is used in two ways. One is in a universal sense- the totality of all who have ever or will ever find saving faith in Jesus Christ.3. This use is rare. The overwhelming use of the word is in a local context, where believers gather together for worship, preaching, and the administration of sacraments (or ordinances, if you prefer).4. It is a local expression of the universal Church. It speaks to the idea of corporate unity. By using the term “church,” the Holy Spirit and NT authors address believers primarily as this corporate unity.

The Body
One of Paul’s strongest metaphors for how the local expression should interact with one another is that of a “body.” Interestingly enough, the body metaphor is an argument against individualism and the attitude of dependance. This metaphor is expounded in 1 Corinthians 12, where, after discussing the gifts that the Spirit gives to the Church, Paul states:
“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and mall were made to drink of one Spirit. “5
He then unpacks this statement by describing how it is exactly that we are “one body:” A body is not just one part, but many parts, that act and interact together to accomplish feats and works. The foot is useless by itself, as is the leg, the eyes, etc. But put them all together, and we get movement- directed and purposeful movement- but each part must rely on the others. There is no room for “look out for number 1″ in the body. Paul then tells us, “Now qyou are the body of Christ and individually rmembers of it. “6 Again, we enter this body through a personal faith, and an individual baptism, but it is an entrance into a corporate whole. As individuals, we each bring our gifts in order that the whole may function as it should. Individualism leaves us as merely a dismembered body.

One Another Commands
In order to emphasize the importance of community, sometimes people will speak of “one anothering.” This is shorthand for referencing the various verses that speak of our interactions with one another in the body. Tonight, I fired up Accordance, and put a search to find every occurrence of an author commanding us to do something with or to “one another.” It brought up 24 occurrences.7. This search brought up several instances where we are called to greet one another, love one another, wait on one another, and encourage one another. This verse doesn’t exhaust the “one anothers,” though, as it leaves out other verses such as Jesus’ words that we “should love one another”8 Neither does it show us Paul’s encouragement to “not pass judgment on one another.”9 We are to care for one another10 and motivate one another 11. The question that hangs before us is this: How can we fulfill the “one anothers,” if we are so entrapt by the chains of Individualism? Of course, we can’t.

But isn’t that what we do? We go to a worship service, wondering how the music will make us feel today, what will we learn from the preaching, if we’ll be moved by the prayers. My challenge for this coming Sunday, for those who choose to accept it: let the only “me” this sunday be, “what can I do for the body that I have found myself journeying with?” What gifts have you been withholding from the body? What other ways can you “love, greet, motivate, care for, and encourage” all the rest of the “one anothers?” How can you enhance another brother or sister’s worship experience?

How can you serve?

  1. Gal 2:20, NLT ↩
  2. ἐκκλησία, ekklēsia ↩
  3. Cf. Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 5:25 ↩
  4. Cf. 1 Cor 1:2, among many others. ↩
  5. 1 Cor 12:13, ESV ↩
  6. 1 Cor 12:27 ↩
  7. If you have Accordance, and are interested in searching for this, I used the following search: {VERB second imperative} αλληλων The { bracket must be a square bracket. I am unable to put it that way because my footnote plugin utilizes square brackets. ↩
  8. John 13:34. “Love” here is in the subjunctive mood. ↩
  9. Romans 14:13, in regards to secondary convictions. ↩
  10. 1 Cor 12:25 ↩
  11. Heb 10:24 ↩
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