Christianity Without Bonds

“We Are Of Christ”

So said Paul, when false teachers had moved into Corinth to challenge his credentials.  Paul challenged the Corinthian disciples to consider the obvious facts:  “Look at the things that are before your face.  If any man trusteth to himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also are we” (2 Cor. 10:7).  There was more to be said concerning Paul’s authority as an apostle (v. 8).  But Paul was one of the ministers through whom the Corinthians had believed (1 Cor. 3:5).  He knew what a Christian was.  So they could certainly start with that.  “We are of Christ.”

That is not the only time Paul spoke of Christians as those who are “of Christ” (Gal. 3:29), “they that are of Christ Jesus” (Gal. 5:29; cf. 1 Cor. 15:23).

Even in New Testament times people tended to stray from this singleminded commitment to Christ, and to exalt human beings beyond what was due.  At Corinth some said, “I am of Paul”; others, “I of Apollos”; and still others, “I belong to Cephas (= Peter)”; and “I of Christ” (1 Cor. 1:10–13).

“Is Christ divided?” Paul demanded.  They certainly were making it to appear so.  So the implied negative was a rebuke of the whole situation.  Then he had two questions for those who said, “I am of Paul”:  First, “was Paul crucified for you?” and second, “Were ye baptized into the name of Paul?”

The answer, of course, was “No” to both questions; and Paul’s logic is:  Then you have no right to belong to Paul.  It was Christ Jesus who was crucified for them, paying the price to purchase them (1 Cor. 6:19–20; 7:23); and they had been baptized into the name of Christ (cf. Acts 8:16; 19:5).  They belonged to Christ and to no other.

“We are of Christ,” says Paul.  And so we say today.  Christ Jesus was crucified for us, and we have been baptized into the name of Christ.  So we belong to Christ.  We have no sectarian loyalties or denominational affiliations.  We are of Christ, and consider that that is enough to be.  It tells it all.

Jesus wanted his apostles to “make disciples” of the nations (Matt. 28:18–20).  And that is all they did.  Acts 11:26 tells us that “the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”  Christians!  The word has the same formation as the word Herodian, which identified those who belonged to Herod; they were adherents of Herod.  Christians are people who belong to Christ.

We are disciples (pupils, students, adherents) of Christ, as a people who sit at the feet of the Teacher, learn from him and remain in his word, confident that in his word alone we “shall know the truth” (John 8:31); who endeavor to follow him and to breathe his spirit (John 13:12–15, 34–35); to honor him before everything else and before every human loyalty (Luke 14:22–35).

Even today, men continue to exalt men, human doctrines and human systems.  But we are of Christ.  And we think that is enough to say.  It explains everything about us.  We are determined to maintain the loyalty to Christ before everything else.  We are not of Luther, or Calvin or Wesley.  We have no religious loyalty to any mere man.  Nor are we committed to any sectarian system or denominational organization.  We are of Christ.

That explains everything about us.  It explains why we tell people exactly what Jesus instructed his apostles to tell them about salvation (Acts 2:38; 22:16).  It explains the stand we make on baptism, who is to be baptized (Acts 2:41; 8:12) and how (Rom. 6:3–4).  It explains the way we worship, the life and discipline we advocate, the way the church is organized, our understanding of the church’s mission.  We belong to Christ as the members of a body belong to their head (Rom. 12:3–5; 1 Cor. 6:15; 12:12; Eph. 1:22–23; 5:22–24).  It is not the place of the body to take matters into its own hands, but rather, to be subject to its head.  The head gives direction.  The body listens and then yields to the direction received from its head.

Paul had made his arguments before King Agrippa, and could see that the king was moved.  But the proud king responds with a brush-off.  His words are best translated:  “In little you are making me a Christian.”  Fat chance of making him a member of this sect that was everywhere spoken against (cf. Acts 28:22).  But if the king was taking Paul’s message lightly, Paul himself was as earnest as could be.  He responds to the king:  “I would to God that both in little and in great, not thou only, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except these bonds” (Acts 26:27–29).  A Christian!  Yes, that is exactly what Paul was trying to make of Agrippa and of all the rest.  He wanted them to become such as he was, “except these bonds.”

A Christian!  But without the bonds.  I know Paul was a prisoner and was speaking of bonds in the most literal sense.  But it strikes me that many people today are trying to be Christians, but with chains that restrict them in their effort to follow Christ.  The bonds of sectarian and denominational loyalties.  The bonds of human doctrinal systems.  Bonds forged by human desire.  Bonds that keep them from being completely free Christians, free to “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev. 14:4).

Christianity without the bonds!  If that thought touches a chord in your heart, as it does in ours, perhaps you may be ready to visit with one of our folk about how to be a Christian without the bonds.