There is a heresy so common in the Western church that we no longer recognize it as one. It does not deny the Trinity or the resurrection. It affirms every line of the creed. Its error is quieter and therefore more dangerous: it believes a person can be a Christian alone.
We inherited it honestly. The air we breathe is the air of the autonomous individual, the self who chooses, the consumer who curates. We carried that self into the sanctuary and called it discipleship. We speak of my faith, my walk, my personal relationship with Jesus, as if salvation were a private arrangement between a soul and its God, with the church as an optional accessory for those who happen to enjoy that sort of thing. Yet Scripture speaks of a salvation that is received and worked out together. âTherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and tremblingâ (Philippians 2:12). In the original, that âyourâ is plural. It is you all, not you alone.
The New Testament cannot imagine a solitary believer. It has no category for a disciple who follows Jesus apart from his people. When Paul writes to the churches, he writes in the plural so consistently that English obscures it. The you that is to work out its salvation is a you all. The commands are given to communities, not freelancers. The temple the Spirit indwells is a community, not a private chamber. âDo you not know that you are Godâs temple and that Godâs Spirit dwells in you?â (1 Corinthians 3:16). In context, that you is again plural. Together you are the temple.
The body has no provision for a hand that wishes to pursue health on its own terms, away from the inconvenience of the other members. âFor just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ⌠Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of itâ (1 Corinthians 12:12, 27). A severed hand is not free; it is dying. In the same way, a Christian cut off from the body is not simply âintrovertedâ; he or she is in spiritual danger.
This is not a Western insight, and that is part of the point. Much of the global church already knows what we have forgotten. In the places where Christianity is growing fastest, faith is assumed to be carried by a people, not invented by an individual. To believe is to belong. The convert does not download a private app; he joins a family that will feed him, correct him, and one day carry him to his grave. This echoes the New Testament pattern, where new believers were immediately joined to a local assembly, âdevoted themselves to the apostlesâ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayersâ (Acts 2:42).
The selfâmade Christian is a contradiction the apostles would not have understood. You did not make yourself. You were baptized into something older and larger than your preferences. âFor in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body⌠and all were made to drink of one Spiritâ (1 Corinthians 12:13). In baptism, you were washed into a body whose other members you did not select and cannot return. You were joined to a people who will sometimes feel nothing like âyour typeâ and yet are now your family in Christ.
This is harder than the private faith we prefer. The other members will disappoint you. They will hold opinions you find foolish and sins you find tiresome, and they will find the same in you. Community is the slow death of the illusion that you are easy to live with. Yet this difficulty is not a bug; it is part of the design. The fruit of the Spirit is not grown in solitude. âThe fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, selfâcontrolâ (Galatians 5:22â23). You cannot practice patience alone. You cannot forgive in a room by yourself. Love is not a feeling you generate in private; it is a thing you do to a particular, irritating, beloved person across the aisle.
So the cure for the heresy is not better arguments. It is presence. The New Testament urges us, âAnd let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one anotherâ (Hebrews 10:24â25). Bind yourself to a local congregation, ordinary and unimpressive as it is. Let people know you well enough to wound you and to carry you. Let them see your weaknesses and bear your burdens, and learn to bear theirs.
In that shared life, you will find that faith is not transmitted by ideas alone but by people. The faith is received as it was always meant to be received: hand to hand, across a table, from those who were there before you and will be there after. You are strengthened when others âencourage one anotherâ and âstir up one another to love and good works.â You are kept when the body notices you drifting and calls you back.
You cannot be saved alone. You were never meant to try. The God who saves you in Christ also joins you to his people, and it is within that people that your salvation is worked out, guarded, and grown.
~ Sunny
All Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV).