Committed to Grow

When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem for his second visit, his hopes were dashed because the people were in spiritual disarray. They had broken every vow of that signed covenant, so Nehemiah immediately went to work.

He presents in this episode as an old and mature man walking in close step with God, humbling, committing his work to God while helping to (again) renew the people of God. They had broken all three vows they had made to God, so Nehemiah set out to correct each problem in the people.

Have you ever been disappointed with other people? People are so disappointing, aren’t they? One does not have to be around church extraordinarily long to discover that people let you down. The reason there are no perfect churches is that there are no perfect people. Given that the church is the sum of its people, it should be no surprise that the church itself will periodically disappoint us too.

Of course, if we have the right view of the church and its people, we are not going to fall into the silly trap of leaving every time we are disappointed. If we recognize that the church is full of sinners, we will not enter a covenant relationship with its people with our eyes closed. In fact, we will not be entering into that covenant relationship on the false pretext that the church is there to serve me, meet my needs and fulfill my whims and desires.

We enter a covenant relationship with the church on the same terms as our marriage; a solemn pledge to one another based on unconditional love rather than selfish demands to have our needs met. We will serve the church even when we do not feel it is serving us as we might hope because we are committed to loving it. Just as there is no such thing as a perfect husband or wife, but two people committed to helping one another grow, so there are no perfect churches, just people committed to helping one another grow in Christ.
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That is how Christ views the church. He sees it as beautiful and lovely because he sees what he will make us. He sees beyond the muck and the mess and commits to loving us, and helping us grow, even when we are oh so disappointing. The church is called to mirror that kind of love. We are to commit to the good of other members, to love and serve them – even when it feels as though that is not reciprocated – because that is what Christ has done for us.
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Make Every Day Count!

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