Christian, Are You A Part of The Collective Body?

Christian, Are You A Part of The Collective Body?       Kelly Durant

Acts 2:44-45⁴⁴ Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, ⁴⁵ and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

2. Have you ever seen two kids fight over a toy? One will scream, “It’s mine!”, The other one screams back, “No, it’s mine!” And they pull and throw the toy doll or truck back and forth red in the face and angry. How terrible it is but they would rather see it break before letting the other one have it! 

We observe these things as adults and want to teach our children to share but it is a long slow process. Here is the reality of our selfish human nature, no authoritative person can ever change our selfish heart by physical punishments, abstinence from the toy or what is demanded, or by verbal threats and manipulations. So how do we solve the “me first” individualistic flaw of everyone’s nature (you and I included) which is predisposed to sin? Some role models teach character development, but outside controls only slow down the evil heart but it does not clean out the evil so it remains throughout all adult lives unless a heart change happens.  We all need a heart change, right?

Just think how many professionals and crooks make big money off of individuals who are greedy, deceptive, lying, and individually motivated? I am referring to lawyers over divorce and altercation cases, over politicians who throw entire communities into poverty for bribes and agenda money, and medical and drug consortiums whose motive is not to cure, but to create dependent clients. The list goes on and on! Are you not shocked by what a realm of injustices we live in!  

3. All the world’s destructive evils are administrated by whom? Satan! Do you recall how when Jesus was tempted that the final temptation by Satan was that he would share with Jesus his power over all the earth he controlled? What a usurper and liar! Satan is the embodiment of your typical prideful, me first, power hungry, controlling, oppressive despot; he would never share his glory with God!

Matthew 4: 8 “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. : 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ 11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”

Basically, every individual you meet, unless they are a mature holy living saint of God, has a part of their lives being controlled by some deviance from Satan! Have you ever noticed that? People notice things and talk, ‘Oh he’s nice but he has a terrible temper, oh she’s a great decorator and organizer but she’s very possessive, oh he’s intelligent with ideas to help but sneaky and manipulative.

4. Can we not conclude every person has their own internal weaknesses, a part of them that appears from time to time to harm them and everyone else? Are not most damages and offenses carried out due to a person’s lack of respect towards others, which is in essence a lack of respect towards God’s precepts in the Word? 

Jesus taught us to, ‘Do unto others as we would have them do unto us’…but this golden rule seems to be forgotten, even by some Christians by what we can observe today! If a person is not practicing ‘loving God and others as their selves’, could we not conclude that they are just pretending to be a Christian and are not authentically renewed with the Holy Spirit to have a new heart?

What we have in the world’s societies today are not communities of like-minded persons working together for a common good and goal benefiting all, but rather an individualistic ‘climb the corporate ladder’ type of mentality and this is what is bringing about the destruction of us all. It is Satan’s divide and conquer method which is manifested in individual people demanding their individual interests be at the top of the list: and their list is to legitimatize their authority to flaunt pride, greed, lust, and disrespect towards God and His people! 

5. We live in a crumbling society today, divided by the exercise of powerful spiritual forces in high places exalting evil individuals with Satanic agendas, but here is the hope, Jesus gave us the solution to exit this destructive game.

The answer is in the verses of today of Acts 2:44-45. The solution is basically to drop out of the world’s game! To be a practicing Christian, as Jesus taught, you must eliminate from your own self your own individual self-interests. You must deny yourself to do Jesus mission, which means you must die as a seed dries up, you must cut off the hand you offend with, you must stop being who you are and become a person with God’s loving collective nature that cares for all equally. You leave your old fishing business to become a fisher of men like the disciples did.

How can you lose yourself and become what you are not? By becoming a part of a strong collective, by being together with people who are serving Jesus having all things in common with them. Not your will but His and His people in your life!

6. And here is the radical part which very few Christian communities practice, 45:and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. I have experienced living with others who have sold everything just to serve Jesus but obedient people on this level are very few. They are either missionaries, pastors, servants, or a person so loving and pure that they are like a living saint!

Applying this practice to the church today it means that a Christian would consider the church’s needs (the body), the needs of a brother or sister, as what comes before the needs of any individual in the group. Do we see the wealthy sharing their riches with the poor in the church in general? Some do, most don’t.

I am thankful for the Salvation Army that has a group of ministers that does not allow any individual to make more salary than the other, Commissioners and Lieutenants make about the same pay. And the church was founded on the principles of attending to the needs of the poor, which implies getting yourself and the community to share the wealth so everyone has their needs met.

7. There was a sci-fi movie of Star Trek not long ago where there was a population of robotized people, the ‘Borg’. They were an aggressive conquering machine like race that absorbed everyone into the “collective” forcefully and everyone lost their identity and were programmed to be another copy, another Borg robot. This illustration is quite illuminating because this simulates what is happening today. Frighteningly, this scenario is becoming plausible with Artificial Intelligence!

Today we see that individuals with certain interests, some carnal or others more noble, joining their selves with people that have similar and goals as their purpose. There are many ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ groups communities, political parties, and religions; additionally all types of people are connecting through the internet as for good or evil as well. So what is happening over time? 

Over a period of time their individual minds start becoming one mind under the persuasive umbrella of the social engineers and organizers of these groups. And many of the agendas today are subversive and destructive to the soul as you incrementally leave behind all previous morals and values of your conscious voice in order to fit into the larger group. This reveals how collectives are going awry!

8. But here is something interesting about joining groups. God is in the same business of recruiting others! God is absorbing us into His collective mission so that we adopt the mind of Christ so we do His will. We have read it in the scriptures, to be ‘renewed’, to become ‘new creations’, and for all of us to ‘speak the same thing’ and to become like Jesus. We must become one in the Lord!

The devil, the imitator, always copies God’s plans for His sinister purposes. It actually was God’s original idea to bring together all his sheep into one flock to feed them all the same, to put into families those that have no family, to bring together all nations and tongues under one eternal bliss, under the practice of the Word of God. Jesus wants to be our shepherd guiding us into all truth as He is the good shepherd.  But the requirement is that we all must be choosing to be in His flock connected to Him, learning from Him daily by the study of His Word, and getting together with His people in the Corps or church.

The idea is that Jesus takes you in, dirty with your sins and He purifies you day after day. He is in essence cleaning you and remaking you into a different person once you are connected to His vine. He is reprogramming you to be like Him and moving into the trash file all that was a part of your past shameful, sinful life. We must allow ourselves to be rewired into God’s collective loving Kingdom!

9. So the proof of being a Christian as God intended, as it was by the first example in the second Book of Acts, is to be sharing all, helping, serving, and not allowing anyone to not have their needs supplied. You are collectively one with your brothers and sisters.  

Are you that loving? Are you that compassionate? I pray you are striving to get there because that is true obedience and holiness ‘loving your neighbor as yourself’. Come and pray and ask God to break you, to burn away with the Holy Spirit any selfishness or pride so that you will fit into His collective heaven one day soon!