Immerse Yourself

Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1 Tim 4:15-16

Why is it so easy to forget that Christianity isn't something we possess or something we do and that the Church isn't something we attend or even join?  Instead Christianity is an identity; its who we are, and the Church is truly a body created by God from those whose identities are now bound up in Christ.

So much of my distraction and lukewarmness can be attributed to not fully grasping these two realities. Think about it. If you are married, that is an identity that affects how you communicate with one special person. There is a deeper, fuller, more personal, more frequent, more intuitive communication with your spouse than with the person at the mall. The same is true of God. If you are a believer in Christ, your identity has changed. Your relationship with God is different, deeper, fuller, more personal. God is no longer "out there". He is "in here". His presence changes everything.

For most life threatening illnesses, the treatment usually includes medicine and / or surgery. Both of those remedies involve deep, internal changes. So it is with Christ. He is not a figurine to put on a shelf. Nor is He a figurehead to followed at a distance. Instead, He is the surgeon and the surgery and the medicine and the healing balm. But what was taken out, has been replaced by something new and it changes who we are.

As we gather, men and women with new identities, we do not gather as a collection of people who could just as easily meet at the cafe or at the game. Rather we meet because we cannot fully do what God has called us to do alone. We all are called to do amazing, radical things for Christ, but few of them can be done fully without the body of Christ. Think about the hand. It can do some incredible things, but nourishing itself is not one of them. Consider the eye. It is truly amazing yet it cannot transport itself very well. How about the heart and lungs. Indispensable to life, yet they cannot protect themselves, actively or even passively. All of this is that same for the body of Christ. Read through 1 Cor 12. All gifts are not given to all people. We need each other. Christ has set up His kingdom to be an interdependent, Spirit dependent kingdom. Alone, we might accomplish a little, but it will probably be surface level, and localized. Together, God will use us to change the world.

I read all of this into Paul's words to Timothy. We need to immerse ourselves, not just wash, not just bathe. We need to be soaked to the bone in the truth of the gospel and be ready to do what God is calling us to do both individually and corporately.

To God Alone be the Glory