James Bannerman, the old Scottish pastor, on body life
“According to the arrangement of God, the Christian is more of a Christian in society than alone, and more in the enjoyment of privileges of a spiritual kind when he shares them with others, than when he possesses them apart...The Christian Church was established in the world, to realize the superior advantages of a social over an individual Christianity; and to set up and maintain the communion of the saints.”
J. Bannerman, from the early 1800s, in his 2 vol. set, The Church of Christ, Vol. 1: pages 91-92.
God has made me ready to read something like this, and embrace it. He’s worked on me in this respect for the past 10 years or more. Don’t take me wrong. I have always been a man devoted to the church, but not one dependent on her. I’ve not been one to see that I can only rightly, with great, great enjoyment possess Christ and His benefits in the context of the utter necessity of being dependent on others.
Bannerman says, “superior advantages;” there are higher, deeper things as the church breathes and lives together, as the called-out, gathered people.
O God, give me more repentance from my individualistic superiority.
G. Mark Sumpter
No comments:
Post a Comment