Iron Sharpens Iron

Contemplate the things of the Lord together

To walk the road of faith we must in some sense walk it alone. We must all come to the cross alone. We must all confront our sin for what it is alone with Jesus. But there is a caveat; to walk the way of holiness seems like we travel the road faster if we walk with other people of faith. What I mean is, if we walk in communion with other like-minded believers we learn the lessons of faith quicker, easier. Proverbs 27: 17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” It is a verse that has been overused to the point of becoming a truism. But I think John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress helps to clarify that it does not simply mean talking with each other but encouraging each other to excel in a whole life that is consistent with the character of God. The following is an excerpt of that book where the metaphorical character “Faithful” is ending his conversation with “Talkative” after confronting and encouraging him to not just talk about truths but to live them. After “Talkative” takes offense and leaves, “Faithful” then has a piercing and profound discussion with his good friend “Christian.”

“Talkative: Since you are so ready to take up reports, and to judge so rashly as you do, I cannot but conclude you are some peevish or melancholy man, not fit to be discoursed with; and so adieu.

Then up came Christian, and said to his brother, I told you how it would happen; your words and his lusts could not agree. He had rather leave your company than reform his life. But he is gone, as I said: let him go; the loss is no man’s but his own. He has saved us the trouble of going from him; for he continuing (as I suppose he will do) as he is, would have been but a blot in our company: besides, the apostle says, “From such withdraw thyself.”

Faithful: But I am glad we had this little discourse with him; it may happen that he will think of it again: however, I have dealt plainly with him, and so am clear of his blood if he perisheth.

Christian: You did well to talk so plainly to him as you did. There is but little of this faithful dealing with men now-a-days, and that makes religion to stink so in the nostrils of many as it doth; for they are these talkative fools, whose religion is only in word, and who are debauched and vain in their conversation, that (being so much admitted into the fellowship of the godly) do puzzle the world, blemish Christianity, and grieve the sincere. I wish that all men would deal with such as you have done; then should they either be made more conformable to religion, or the company of saints would be too hot for them. Then did Faithful say,

“How Talkative at first lifts up his plumes! How bravely doth he speak! How he presumes To drive down all before him! But so soon As Faithful talks of heart-work, like the moon That’s past the full, into the wane he goes; And so will all but he that heart-work know.”

Thus they went on, talking of what they had seen by the way, and so made that way easy, which would otherwise no doubt have been tedious to them, for now they went through a wilderness.”

It seems that a healthy home church will facilitate this type of faith. It seems that brothers and sisters in the Lord will not allow each other to ‘just talk’ about living the Christian life but help each other to walk the road of faith together. Paul said in Hebrews 10:25, “not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” The encouragement has only to do with living faithfully, more consistently with the way of the cross and in the power of the resurrection. But there is baggage we all have relative to our negative experiences with religious Christians that like to talk rather than live. And so we are afraid to truly encourage one another or we are loath to assemble together. We should push through our discomfort and not just assemble but in all our assembling truly encourage.

And what does ‘assembling’ actually mean? It means intentionally meeting with other believers as often as is reasonably possible in groups at home, with other families, one on one, on the phone, etc, etc. Iron gets dull with use. And iron can’t sharpen itself.

If Today’s Church Is ‘Sick’ What Does ‘Healthy’ Look Like?

There are a lot of studies out there that say that the statistics of the Church relative to divorce, pornography, debt, etc is no different if not worse than the rest of the country. There are a lot of books written about what is wrong with today’s church. There are a lot of commentaries about what a Church needs to do to freshen up its programs, reorganize its leadership, etc. There are even more people all too willing to spout off their opinion of what’s wrong or what should be done differently.

This is not one of those posts. If the Church today really is sick why? And if the answer is yes then it begs the question, “What does ‘Healthy’ Church look like?”

I’ll take a shot at it. Click on the link below to see two different charts describing a Biblically healthy church in terms of its activity compared to the current situation of the American Church.
Healthy vs Unhealthy Church Activity

If Church Is More Than Sunday Morning, What Is It?

We have been talking around Church in general and have attempted to get at some specifics but we have not adequately defined the Church and the type, nature, and volume of its activity as it manifests the kingdom of God on earth.

Please click the following link to download a PDF attempting to visually represent what the Church is and how it should reconcile the world to God.  Church Defined

Basically the church should represent 3 types of activity in order from least activity to most activity: 1) Believers encouraging believers in a larger group format to live the kingdom God (UGD, FSO), 2) Believers reaching their communities (Home Churches in whatever form appropriate to best reach and disciple the people of their communities), and 3) believers living the kingdom of God on Earth (Uncalculated Devotion to God and Freely Sacrificial to Others).

Note the base of all church activity is the the Biblical norm for a Jesus follower. What happens when there is a lack of focus on what essentially are the core values of the Church, the two greatest commandments (love the Lord your God, neighbor as yourself) is an inversion of the type and volume of activity and the Church becomes top heavy. To act like the base, center and focus of all Church activity is the traditional Sunday morning event is to miss the bigger picture. What we typically think of though when someone says the word “Church” is that building that houses the Sunday morning event. However, the Biblical model of Church consists of all three levels with the larger gathering of believers representing the lesser of all Church activity. Its role is to encourage and strengthen believers as they live the kingdom and exercise the ministry of reconciliation (bringing the world back into right relationship with God).

Please click on the link above and then tell everyone what you think of the Church as it has been defined.