“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,” -Phil. 1:27
God’s plan is not for us to go about our Christian walk alone, but instead with others in the local church. In his book, The Christian Life, Sinclair Ferguson says Christians are like coals in a fire (pg. 180). If you remove a coal, isolating it from the others, it cannot produce the same amount of heat on its own and it will quickly go out. Yet, when those coals remain together they keep one another burning and produce far more heat together than they ever could separately (think on Heb. 3:12-14; 10:23-25).
So it is in the church. We are not to go at it alone. We need each other. Ed Welch says that in the church we are all “needy and needed.” In his book, Side by Side, he wrote:
Your neediness qualifies you to help others. Your neediness, offered well to someone else, can even be one of the great gifts you give to your church. You will inspire others to ask for help. (pg. 15, emphasis mine)
He writes about how showing our neediness invites others to do the same. When this begins to happen in the church something beautiful happens. Welch explained:
When…this happens, the myth that we all have life figured out is exposed, and we begin to share one another’s burdens, which is the way God intended it to be. (pg. 15)
Not only are we needy, but we are also needed. Think about Paul speaking of the church as a body in 1 Corinthians 12. Each part is needed for the whole body to function properly. When one member suffers the whole body responds to the hurt. Don’t believe me, think about how your body reacted the last time you stubbed your little toe. So it should be in the church. On being needed, Welch wrote:
We are needed. This is the way the church moves forward—through mutual love and care…we move toward others when they are in need, we get to know them, and we pray. (pg. 65)
In another book, he wrote the following:
God takes initiative and moves towards us; we take initiative toward others. This is simple teaching with endless applications…Too often we are silent when we know of someone’s trouble. Silence is the same as turning away. (Caring for One Another, pgs. 17, 19)
Yes, “simple teaching with endless applications” indeed. First, we must be committed to each other in the context of covenant membership if we are going to help one another follow Jesus. It works out from there as we intentionally move toward one another because we recognize we are both needy and needed. If we don’t recognize that we are needy we are being arrogant by refusing help from others. If we don’t recognize that we are needed we are being selfish by refusing to help others.
Written by Matt Baker