The Household of Faith

SCRIPTURE:  So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:10 ESV

THOUGHT: How is your hospitality quotient? I love it that Paul gives the Galatians permission to do good especially to fellow believers. Sometimes it feels like we must do good to everyone else and give each other whatever’s left over, but that’s not how he saw it.

Going forward I think we face increasing hostility in culture – a hostility reserved for those who do not agree with the planks in the platform of those with the loud, angry voices. Increasingly we need strong relationships, soft places to land when it’s rough out there, a group of people who can remind us that our heads are screwed on straight – it’s the world that is tilting. We need the household of faith, and part of building that is practicing more hospitality. We need to get back into the habit of having people over for lunch after church, joining a life group, Bible study, prayer circle. We need to stop whining about church on Sunday and Wednesday night – and stop supporting events that compete. We need to stop teaching our kids that everything else is more important than gathering with fellow believers.

We need to take our faith more seriously than we ever have before, making much time for personal prayer and study, rejecting the cultural invitation to become more and more busy and less and less available to each other and God.

I read a little bit this last year about something called mass formation psychosis. So interesting. When there’s a lot of free floating anxiety in a culture, people begin to look for someone or something to blame – an example would be masses forming malevolence towards “anti-vaxxers” during the pandemic. In a mass formation, people believe all kinds of weird things, even contradictory things that don’t make sense – like that all of the sudden people who’ve had the disease (Covid-19) can’t have antibodies against it. Entire systems of thought circle around the perceived threat in an attempt to rid the system of the offending and non-compliant ideas (or people). The social scientist I read on this topic said that the only way to break a mass formation psychosis is to speak truth into it – to be the people who continue to ask questions, who practice critical thinking and truth speaking.

That is a great description of the Christ-follower, isn’t it? When we practice hospitality it serves to make us more ready to do all of those things in culture doesn’t it? As Paul tells the Corinthians, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Cor. 10:3-5).”

That sounds like just what the doctor ordered. There is a madness out there, a lot of free floating anxiety ripe for multiple mass formations. Sadly, we Christians are partially to blame for not speaking into the public square with more courage and tenacity – the good news is the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.

PRAYER: Oh God, give us a holy boldness filled with divine power. Help us grow as we spend time in the household of faith — then speak into the madness without flinching.