"Voluntary, moral communities by definition require boundaries. Folks say, “I willingly place myself under the authority of this community if I’m going to be part of it.” I made that decision when I came to Gordon. I’m willing to relinquish my individual rights out of a shared commitment to what’s good for the community."
It caught my eye because I have been listening to a series of podcasts through the Old Testament (Torahclass.com) and as I listened through Leviticus 18 and 19, the statement was made that Holiness, by God's definition, looks a lot like morality.
Whether it was true in practice or not Israelite society was a moral community with strikingly clear, and somewhat stringent boundaries, and yet it was never intended to be a closed community. Anyone could become a part of Israel if they willingly took on the moral commitments that marked it's boundaries.
That is something I wish was more deeply appreciated in the church. To recast the statement by the college president, the church is supposed to be a voluntary, moral community, which by definition requires boundaries. Believers should joyfully say, “I willingly place myself under the authority of this community if I’m going to be part of it, and furthermore I’m willing to relinquish my individual rights out of a shared commitment to what’s good for the community.
Too many people are doing what can be described as cohabiting with the church, like a couple who enjoy each other but are unwilling to make any real moral obligation to one another. So long as the church is meeting their needs, and making them feel good all is well but there is no intention of submitting personal interests to the needs of the community, and no community obligation to care for the individual.
God's expectation of his people has always been holyness.
And holyness looks a lot like accepting a voluntary but not arbitrary set of moral boundaries, in concert with a community equally committed to the same moral standards.
This is why church membership, which I have heard maligned a time or two recently matters, churches are extensions of the ultimate covenental community. To be part of the covenant without a commitment to it's local extension is contradictory, and to be part of the community without a genuine recognition of mutual obligation is absurd.
The church needs to have strikingly clear, and somewhat stringent moral boundaries, and yet the church is supposed to be the most accessible community on earth, if one is willing to submit to the standards.
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