WEEK #5

Authentic Biblical Community

Are you experiencing “A”?

It doesn’t matter whether you are in an Adult Bible Fellowship, a small group, or on a ministry team. The question is – Are you experiencing Authentic Biblical Community? The forms may vary but the function is non-negotiable for a Christian who wants to obey the New Testament and experience life as God intended it. The Bible requires every believer in the church to experience on-going authentic relationships with a community of believers who practice the “one another” commands. The purpose of this series of articles is to biblically define ABC, to help the readers accurately assess whether they are experiencing ABC to the fullest and to determine what needs to be improved and strengthened in their present community experience.

An authentic community is made up of people that are credible, real, without hypocrisy, sincere, honest, and genuine. Hypocrisy involves pretending to be something that you are not. Christians are not hypocrites because they are not perfect. They are only hypocrites when they claim or convey the idea that they are perfect.

Acts 2:46 tells us that part of that first church’s experience with Christian community involved “…breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity [“simplicity” NKJV] of heart.” The word “simplicity” means “unfolded”. Their lives were an open book – the good, the bad & the ugly. The word “duplicity” means “folded”. The word “multiplicity” means “many folds”. The members of the early church lived transparent lives with one another.

I believe the reason God disciplined Ananias & Sapphira so severely in Acts 5:1-11 is because they were the first pretenders in the church. They portrayed themselves in a manner inconsistent with their actions. They claimed to give more money than they actually did. They wanted to share the same respect and admiration that Barnabas received by being so generous with needy Christians (Acts 4:36-37) but they were unwilling to pay the price. So they lied about the amount and God killed them because, when asked, they lacked authenticity and perpetuated the lie. A lack of authenticity was unacceptable in the Christian community.

God never intended for us to have secret sins that couldn’t be brought into the light enabling us to receive help from others. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship...and all their fellowship and service may still be left to their loneliness. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur because though they have fellowship with one another, as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner so everybody must conceal his sin, from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly found among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy.” [Life Together]

Your secret sin is your greatest enemy!

Are you experiencing community that is authentic? Do you have a safe place where people love you just like you are but too much to let you stay that way? How folded up are you?