Christianity is not a “do-it-yourself” faith. In fact, God has known from the beginning of creation that it’s not good for mankind to go it alone. We weren’t designed to reach the center of God’s kingdom apart from fellowship, mentoring, coaching and accountability. We see the results of mankind rebelling against God’s design for us being played out again and again in our history. Judges 17, demonstrates for us how the lack of accountability results in each one going around doing what’s right in his own eyes. More modern examples include Adolph Hitler and Osama bin Laden who never did anything contrary to their own core values.
Getting to the point of being so independent that we don’t need instruction was never in mankind’s nature. Therefore, we get derailed from our journey to the center of God’s kingdom when we don’t allow others to speak into our lives. In Acts 8, Phillip meets a man studying scripture and asks him if he understands what he’s reading. The man replies “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” in Acts 10 we see that, after being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; after preaching boldly and even performing miracles for the Lord, even Peter still required further clarification. He had to learn that God shows no favoritism.
Jesus, Himself, came to earth to show us His perfect faith in the Father’s perfect plan for Him. Now it’s up to us to pattern our lives according to His submission. We need to clearly demonstrate that we want instruction instead of independence. After Paul met Jesus, he patterned his life after Him. Paul now calls on us to pattern our lives after him and intentionally focus on and learn from those who follow this example. As students in this learning, we should follow the example of the Ethiopian who invited Phillip into his life. For our part, we demonstrate that we earnestly hunger for the Lord’s instruction by inviting good coaches, mentors, and life group members into our lives.
The Fellowship of the Believers They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42, 46-47 NIV
