I read a book in my late teens called “The Normal Christian Life” by Watchman Nee and it shaped much of my understanding of Christianity. Honestly, I don’t remember a lot of the book now and really should re-read it; however, the title sums up the most important idea of the book. The theme over and over was that there are no “levels” of Christianity. Too often, we explain the Christian walk like there is a ladder—we start on a rung very far away from God and then we climb up it as we “mature” getting “closer and closer” to God. Pastors and missionaries are called to a “higher” standard of Christianity then the rest of us “normal Christians.” There are Christians who are “on fire” and committed and Christians who are just not in a place to be involved in ministry.
But when we look at scripture, we do not see these levels of Christianity. There is one type of life that each of us are called to live and that is the “normal Christian life.” Pastors are not called to a higher standard then someone who has been a believer for a few months or ten years. We are all called to the same standard.
Over my next few posts, I will look at the places in the Bible where we do see Christians referred to in different ways (baby vs. mature, etc.) and what those passages are saying about Christian living. I will also post what I think scripture defines the “normal Christian life” as.
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2 comments:
Watchman Nee, eh? Yeah I've benefitted from some of his insights, but his distinguishing from soul and spirit resulted in some weird stuff. The name of the doctrine is tri-...something I forget. Wow, I should post something when I actually have some information, as opposed to foggy memories.
Yeah, I don't agree with everything he says, but I don't know if there is any author or theologian who gets everything right. Always have to balance what someone says with scripture.
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