Encouraged by the Mutual Faith

At the end of my last article about not being ashamed to share your experiences about the power of God working in your life (see also: The Burden of the LORD), I related a conversation that I'd had with another counselor at Camp Woodmen where I did precisely what I've been advocating in these last two articles. I left out an important part of the story, although I alluded to it vaguely with the following comment:

God meant for us to share these stories with each other so that we can encourage each other and mutually strengthen one another's faith.

The purpose of all of this openness and sharing that I'm so adamantly promoting is not that I feel that I have some great story that everyone needs to hear. Rather, the point is that you and I, and every member of God's church, have experiences that can help us to better understand the power of God, to see His transformational work in our own lives, and to encourage each other by seeing that work in action. This is the true power and purpose of what we call "fellowship," and one of the primary reasons for which God appointed a holy convocation, a gathering, every 7th day.

Romans 1:9-10
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.

Paul had never visited the church of God in Rome at the time of this writing. He had heard about them, and said in verse 8 that "your faith is spoken of throughout  the whole world." He passionately desired to meet these people for some reason - but why?

Romans 1:11-12
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.

Paul knew that his visit would profit them, and he greatly desired to further "establish" them, even though their faith was already known throughout the whole world. He said that he had a spiritual gift to give them, but this was not merely a situation where Paul had some great thing to reveal to them. Instead, he desired to impart a gift that all believers should be imparting to one another regularly: "that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me." 

Paul desired to go to Rome and to have deep conversations with the people there about spiritual things. This is something that I realized at camp this year that I have not done effectively on a regular basis, but which, while there, I was constantly doing without even trying. It was simply what was needed to fulfill the duties of the job that week. It's something that I realized that I haven't even done effectively on the Sabbath, a day when we should be especially focused on God in our conversation. That's not to say that I haven't had some great spiritual conversations on the Sabbath (as well as at other times) or that I've completely failed in this regard, but just that I know it's an area where I have a lot of room for improvement. It's not always easy because you have to put in effort beforehand in order to get the right results. You have to have spiritual things on your mind to begin with, bible study and meditation points from the week that you've thought about and want to discuss, and, most relevant to this series, an openness and earnest desire to share your struggles, experiences, wisdom, and meaningful thoughts with others.

Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness with God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."

I read several commentaries on this verse, and all of them had different things to say about what this phrase "from faith to faith" meant. Some suggested it meant the growth and increase of faith in an individual throughout their life, a change in faith for those transitioning from the Old Covenant to the New, or some other such comparison. None of them touched on the meaning that stuck out to me, which was, in conjunction with verse 12, the faith shared between two believers, the mutual faith between people of God which is a spiritual gift that encourages them both.

The important part of the conversation that I purposely left out of the previous article is that this counselor that I shared my experiences of God's work in my life reciprocated by sharing her own story. She told me about about some of the trials that she has come through and how similar some of our struggles in the faith had been. The result was that we were both mutually strengthened by each others' faith, and that exchange, as Paul knew, was extremely valuable! But getting to that point with another person requires overcoming our own anxiety about being open with each other and putting away any feeling of shame or guilt about sharing what may be very personal circumstances. The powerful thing that I have found is that, once one person will make that initial move, to reach across that barrier and open up and reveal something personal and meaningful, the other person will no longer be held back by that barrier either, allowing for the free and profitable exchange of the righteousness of the gospel revealed in our lives - from faith to faith.