Mutuality in Christ: The Framework of the Christian Life

The Church of Jesus Christ is in crisis. Many contemporary Christians acknowledge this truth and lament, resist and even actively oppose the various doctrinal and practical errors they believe to be the cause of the Church's sad condition. But in this context Paul shows that the crisis in the Church is insidious and omnipresent; it transcends time and culture, deceiving and undermining Christ's Body in every place and generation. The Church's ever-present disease and disfunction reflect its foundational error, which is the failure of Christians to recognize that Christianity is not a new commitment, but a new creation. The Church perpetually struggles with its life and mission because it fails to understand what it is. Regretably, one can say without fear of overstatement that, for the vast majority of those who profess the name of Christ, Christianity is effectively nothing more than another religion - another body of religious truths to be studied, embraced, and put into practice. Thus being a Christian means making a new commitment rather than being made a part of the new creation in Christ. In this passage (as it lays the foundation for the balance of the epistle) Paul shatters that delusion and calls his readers to rethink their faith and what it really means to be Christians.