Christians are aware of the saying, “You are the only Bible some will every read.” If that is true, then I shudder.
A few weeks ago the thought occurred to me that if I am the only Christian that my family knows, they will have a distorted idea of what the Body of Christ is all about. It is not that my life is so opposite of what it should be, but that it is also incomplete. Aside from the sin and selfishness that I still am battling, I cannot be all of what God intended in the church. I have some gifts and some good qualities, but only Jesus was a perfect representation of what God intended humans should be like.
I’ve also noticed how exposure to other Christian has a positive effect on our unsaved family members. One told me how much she likes our Christian friends and appreciates how they talk and think. This reinforces the reality of New Testament descriptions to me: the church is a body; all the members are important, and we are to deeply care for and support one another.
Today I’m reading a description of how the Old Testament priests had slipped from their important position because they had ceased to obey God. They represented the people to God, but also God to the people. Malachi 2:7-8 says, “‘For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But you have departed from the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,’ says the LORD of hosts.”
The priests were responsible for making the law and will of God known to the people. When they misrepresented God, they became “contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept My ways . . .” and God sent judgment on them. Their role was too important and He could not look the other way.
In New Testament, 1 Peter 2:9-10 says of all Christians, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
Every Christian has been given the role and duty of a priest. We must praise God because of the mercy He has shown us. Other passages tell us to represent others in prayer before God as intercessors, and to represent God to the people as His ambassadors. In other words, we are the only Bible some will ever read.
I know that I fall short as one of God’s priests. While I don’t want it to be true, I fear that I am like the priests in Malachi; people have looked at me and thought, If this is what it means to be a Christian, forget it. My sins and incompleteness do cause others to stumble.
But not just mine. The Christian church is God’s Body here on earth. What do people see when they look at us? Shining examples of goodness in a dark place? Or failures who stumble and cause others to stumble? If the former is true, I’m totally convinced by my own failures that anything good others see in me is another one of God’s mercies. If the latter is true, all of us need to repent. I must stop stumbling and start shining.
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