Individualism and Union Do's
Individualism and Union Do's
Individualism may best be defined as the Bizzaro version of I Corinthians 13, (Bizzaro meaning the exact opposite). The individualist is kind, but only to himself. He has patience, oodles of it. He patiently waits for himself to become better. But no one else gets patience. The individualist does envy, he parades himself, is puffed up and seeks his own.
Most individualists, however, have difficulty going it alone. The only solution is to band together with others, who are in some sense, you. Thus, individualism always expresses itself by forming elitist, self-absorbed communities. Think about it. Whether it is punk rockers, Amway distributors, or Corinthians for Apollos, people associate only with their own kind, and have difficulty being patient with others.
Individualism, not surprisingly is not restricted to the world. It wends its way into the church, and has from the beginning. In Corinth those who had much food and wine were enjoying themselves to the neglect of others (I Corinthians 11:17-22). Those with flamboyant gifts thought themselves to be more important than those with less noticeable gifts (12: 20-26). Read the passages and you will find that the sin of the individual is seldom committed alone.
God doesn't like individualism. He did, however, create individuality. "Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually", (I Corinthians 12:27). The purpose of individuality is that we may better serve God and each other, (I Corinthians 12-14, Romans 12, Ephesians 4).
Equipped with different gifts, personalities, background, talents, responsibilities, we are bound together into an eclectic community where our differences are a testimony to the glory of God. Our bond, that which puts the unity in community, is not our choice of hair- styles, not our jobs, not our age group, but is that we share the same story, the gospel. It is because this holds us together that we can show forth the fruit of the Spirit that is patience.
Now the question we each must ask is this, are we operating from individualism, or individuality? Here is one way you can find out, another quiz to give yourself. Begin by turning to the concordance in your Bible, in the section where all the "anothers" are listed: 'Love, comfort, admonish, encourage, bear, exhort, be kind, teach, confess to, etc.... one another.
Here then is the quiz, are these imperatives regarding the community of believers being performed in your church? Or in your life? If they are not, then what you have in your church, no matter how large or small it may be, no matter how many programs it has, is nothing but a great crowd of individuals. Just like at the movies, we are not together but rather are merely doing the same thing near each other.
Typically we respond to this problem by opening the doors wider, by trying to lure more individualists into the church. We downplay what unites us, the horror and glory of the cross. We seek to create unity not through patience but through tolerance, just as the church in Corinth did. They split over what united them, the apostolic teaching, and united where they should have split (by exercising church discipline on the sexually immoral).
Patience means recognizing that while we may not all be on the same page, we are in the same book. Therein lies the unity that puts individuals into communities. That is what you've been feeling as missing, or worse what you haven't even noticed was missing. Without the "one anothers", the requisites of community we will fall off either side of the horse, uniting around nothing (tolerance) or not uniting at all (impatience). Either way all you are left with on Sunday morning is a crowd.
And THAT is bizarre.