Dear church,

Never forget what God has done for you. His actions in your life are to be the driver of all you do for other people and for how tightly you cling to the material possessions you have gathered in this life.

“You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you.” God did not just redeem his people. He enriched them and sent them out of the land of Egypt in triumph (Exodus 12:35-36; Numbers 33:3).

This truth was to dictate the actions of God’s people when they found themselves in the position of redeemer. They were not to be stingy. They were not to calculate gain or loss. “You shall open wide your hand to your brother.”

Make special note of the obligation God’s children have toward their brothers and sisters in Christ. We have been bought with a price by the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:20). We’ve been set free from slavery to sin and death. And we have a sacred duty to others among us, to those who also abide in the church, to never be grudging in our attitude toward them (1 John 2:9-10). 

Our culture is constantly speaking the lie of individualism. But we know there is no such thing in the life of Christ. The life we have in Christ is not possible through individualism. It has everything to do with our dependence on the Son of God, who expressed his own dependence on the Father. 

We should not be surprised when we find, in the church, that we also are dependent on each other. This is not something from which we should run away. It is the lead sentence of our message of good news to the world (John 13:34).

Chris