Personal vs. Private

I hear a lot these days about a personal relationship with Jesus. And I want to affirm the sentiment, in as much as, it refers to each person needing to come to a God led moment of commitment to following Jesus- whether you call it justification, being saved, moment of decision, or when I was saved by God- every person must ultimately, individually make a decision to follow Jesus. You cannot be born into it by family connection. Baptized into it by church affiliation. Or be accepted into it by association either through joining a church or participating in religious activities. As Jesus told Nicodemus- "...no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." John 3:3.

In this, I think we can all agree there is a personal relationship with Jesus. But in our day and time, personal has come to be private. As in, it's between me and God. Stay out of it and I'll leave you alone. In no way, is that what Jesus intended or the church practiced. But in our churched, religified society we have made this the norm. There is no room for accountability or question. We have gone off and remade Jesus in our image instead of being made to look like Him. And that's on both sides of the debate. Some condone things that are condemned in scripture- greed, gluttony, selfishness, lustful actions. And come condemn things that scripture says are acceptable- unity in the Body of believers, church discipline, disagreements over secondary and tertiary issues like tobacco, alcohol, and birth control.

There is a two fold disaster that occurs when a personal faith becomes private and we are seeing the effects of both in the church in American today. First, a private faith is not shared. We are seeing fewer and fewer people beginning to follow Jesus in America today. While the Gospel is exploding in other nations, it is imploding in the most churched country in the world. And part of that is because of our commitment to private faith. Why share something that is between us and God and is just for our personal benefit? We will see this change when we realize that just as Jesus offered Himself for the world, so He calls us to offer ourselves as "living sacrifices" (Romans 12:1) giving our lives both literally and figuratively to make the Gospel known- (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Second, our "private" faith means anyone who calls us to account for our sins or struggles is "judging us" and should butt out. This is a huge problem in the church and one we cannot ignore anymore. We are told very bluntly in 1 Corinthians 5 that we are not to be judgmental of people who are not followers of Christ. In fact, we should expect them to act like people who do not know Jesus, because they do not! But we are to judge, call to account, and challenge in loving fashion those who claim to know Jesus. 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. "Purge the evil person from among you."" When someone thinks their faith is "private" this is impossible to do. But are called to be a body- all united together0 and what hurts the arm is the business of the shoulder and the feet as well, because it affects them as well.

I pray that we can move on from private faith. Be accountable to one another. Listen to those who ask yo0u questions. Learn from those you disagree with. Be teachable and humble and remember your faith affects far more than just you.