To You or Y'all
Is your bible reading too american?
Do you usually think of your faith as something that is personal, or corporate? Is your faith an individual thing, or a group experience? Think about it for a moment.
To what extent does your faith belong to you alone, and what part of it belongs to the body of Christ, the Church? What about your life? Your time, talent and treasure?
Question to Consider
To what extent is your faith an individual personal thing, and to what extent does your faith belong to the Body of Christ?
Take a moment to consider this question before reading on.
American Individualism
When we come to the Bible, we bring with us our own cultural biases. As Americans in the 21st Century, we have a strong bias toward individualism.
This tendency is so ingrained in our culture and our thinking that it is hard to see things any other way. “My life is mine. My faith is mine. My stuff is mine. My career is mine. As a Christian I love and serve others, but I do it on my terms, in the way that works best for me and my family.”
Sometimes we can look like consumers of Christianity instead of members of a Body.
Reading Paul's Letters
This bias toward individualism can cloud how we read scripture. Think about it. As you read Paul’s letters to the churches, like Romans, Colossians, or 1 Thessalonians, have you primarily thought about how they apply to you personally, or do you think about how we, as the local body of Christ, are doing? How about the promises in these letters? Are they for you individually, or for us as a body?
The Bible was written into a culture that was far less individualistic than ours. When Paul wrote to the Colossian church, he wrote to the “saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae” as a Body. When he wrote, “you,” he meant, “y’all.”
And his hearers did not have the same individualistic mindset we have today. They may have considered that their lives and their faith belonged to each other in a way we have yet to experience in the American church of the 21st Century.
... in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
HOw about You?
Have you been approaching Paul’s letters to the churches as if they were written to an individual? What if next time you read a letter like Colossians, you read with “y’all” in mind?
Think of your small group, your family, your local church, and the global body of Christ. Maybe you’ll need to repent of viewing your faith and life as your own, or maybe God will reveal something very personal for just you.
Paul’s letters are for US, the Body of Christ; and Paul’s letters are for YOU, beloved saint. Praise our great, glorious, infinite God that He can do so many wonderful things with His Word. May He use it to show us how to love one another. May these letters teach us to live together, as the Body of Christ, in perfect harmony.
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