Encouraged by a Mutual Faith

"For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established-- that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me (Romans 1:11-12)."

I was raised as a Catholic. In my teens I stopped attending Mass and pretty much didn't go to church at all for years; although I still would have called myself a Christian if asked. In hindsight, I was not a Christian. After I was saved and had the desire for fellowship with "like-minded" believers, I attended a few different churches. I tried going back to the Catholic church for a while, but that didn't last long. I eventually settled in a non-denominational church that would fall under the "Word of Faith" label. After a few years I left that church and didn't attend a regular church for a couple years. Yes, on occasion, I would visit a church with a friend or just as someone seeking fellowship, but nothing stuck. Eventually, I found my current church and have been there for over ten years. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of denominations and churches under the banner of Christianity. The main reason there are so many is because they don't all teach or believe the same things. I don't mean they won't proclaim that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, but the things they believe in support of that belief are different. For example, I believe in giving, but I don't believe the Bible teaches that Christians are commanded to tithe. Yet, the vast majority of Christian churches teach that we should tithe. Therefore, I would not be comfortable attending a church that teaches Christian tithing with any regularity.The same may go for someone attending my church. There may be things that are taught there that they do not believe.Therefore, it is probably best that they don't attend. If you do not have much in common with a group you won't be encouraged by continuing to be around them. But, when you do find a group of like-minded individuals, your "mutual faith"  will be an encouragement to you.

That is what I believe the Apostle Paul was getting at when he was writing to the church in Rome. He specifically speaks about his desire to visit them in order to be encouraged by their "mutual faith." Paul wrote on a few occasions about "my Gospel" (Romans 2:16; 16:25, 2 Timothy 2:8). I believe he said this because what he proclaimed about Jesus Christ and how we live as Christians wasn't shared by many in the early church. In Galatians 2, Paul told about confronting Peter because, "before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision (Galatians 2:12)." Obviously, James was teaching something different than Paul and fear of the men he taught caused Peter to be a hypocrite in their presence. Paul even spoke of "false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage) (Galatians 2:4)." Here we see supposed brothers in Christ trying to undermine Paul's teaching and put him and others back under the law. These are just a few examples of how naming the name of Jesus doesn't necessarily equate to Christians having a "mutual faith." But, that is okay. If we all agreed the same on every subject then we would be complete in our growth and maturity. Therefore, the Lord's work in us would be finished and that is far from the case. I do not want to sound as if we should all simply stay in our churches and never come out. I have visited other churches over the years for various reasons and will continue to do so. I would even encourage you, if you're a Christian, to do the same. It helps you to experience what others believe, to share about the Lord and to be open to learning about the faith, growing in your faith and, perhaps, discovering something you believe is incorrect. My prayer is that all Christians will learn to trust in and depend on the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, to lead us into all truth and find encourage among the brethren who share that "mutual faith."