Killing Sin Corporately

I will never forget the day.  I was sitting at my kitchen table studying.  It was my second year of seminary.  Out of the blue, my closest friend knocked on the door, entered my home, sat at the table and proceeded to study with me.  He didn’t say much but, “What’s up man?”  I figured he just wanted some company.  Later I found out it was so much more.

Loneliness and boredom are my worst enemies.  I have found when I am home alone I am susceptible to all sorts of temptations and sins.  Given the right scenario – usually, when I am feeling inadequate, helpless, bored and lonely – I become what I hate (Rom 7).  Sin begins to stir within me, and despite my greatest efforts, there is seemingly no way out.

Pascal said it so well, “Man finds nothing more intolerable as to be in a state of complete rest, without passions, without occupation, without diversion, without effort.  Then he faces his nullity, loneliness, inadequacy, dependence, helplessness, emptiness.  And at once there wells up from the depths of his soul boredom, gloom, depression, chagrin, resentment, and despair.”

And so we sat there at my kitchen table and studied.  My wife came home; he packed his things and left.  I thought nothing of it until about an hour later when I received a text.  It read something to the tune of, “How are you doing over there?  You okay?”  I thought the text was strange until I noticed the time that it was sent. The text was sent about 15 minutes before he came to my house; but due to network complications, I did not receive it until he had already come and gone!

My friend knows me.  He knows that when I am alone, it is easier for me to fall into sin.  That day, he saw that my wife and kids were gone and that I was alone (at RTS Jackson, many of the students live in a town home complex owned by the seminary).  And so he sent a quick text to check on me.  When I didn’t answer it, he came over. 

I never understood how to kill sin “by the Spirit” until I understood the way the Spirit works through community. Our dragons (the great sins in our lives) are not easily killed; and it has been my personal experience that my dragons are scarcely wounded by my Sword alone.  But when two are gathered, the dragon quickly flees to his cave.  We track him down through accountability and prayer until we find his hiding place (in my heart).  Then, through faith and repentance, we approach with our Sword (the Word of God) and procede cut his throat.

Ever since seminary, my friend and I talk every two weeks via video chat.  These are often the most difficult, but also the most rewarding times for me.  He asks me the tough questions.  Excuse me…we ask each other the tough questions.  We pray.  We talk about the trials in ministry and in life.  Simply put, we are helping each other endure to the end.  Here is a list of the questions we ask every time we meet.

Now, here are some questions for you:

Are you trying to conquer your sin alone?

Who in your life will love you enough to ask you the tough questions?

Do they know when you are weak?

Do you know when they are weak?

Christian community has proven, in my life, to be essential in my walk with Christ.  Why?  Because it is in community that we can feel Christ’s touch, hear His call and command, see His love, and experience His forgiveness and acceptance.  This is at least one reason I believe love is the greatest of the three (faith, hope and love).  

We cannot physically see the object of our faith (b/c Christ is seated at the right hand of God).  We cannot yet empirically embrace our hope (the inheritance of the saints in glory, though we do have the down payment).  But when your brother (or sister) in Christ comes to study with you (or whatever the scenario may be); when they come to battle sin with you…there we SEE and EXPERIENCE the conquering love of our Savior.