Staying in the Herd

I am privileged to be in a men’s Bible study every Tuesday morning at the YMCA with men from various Christian groups and denominations. It is always one of several sources for me to be fed the Word of God and get to interact with other Christian men who have and are becoming dear friends. This morning we were in 1 Peter 5 where Peter strongly advises/admonishes us to “be sober and vigilant.” He then proceeds to tell why when he writes, “… because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
I have always been fascinated by Peter’s analogy of Satan to a roaring lion. As any of you who watch NPT or the Discovery Channel may know, when a lion hunts, he/she usually travels and hunts particular herds or packs of animals. As they crouch in the ready position they cunningly observe the herd looking for the weak and straggling – those who are withdrawn from the herd. When an animal is isolated and separated, the lion strikes for the kill.
Some of the correlations are blatant – some maybe not. Here are some observations as to how this relates to you, me and the Body of Christ.
1) There is safety in the herd. The animals running with and within the herd are safe. A single lion or even a pride of lions wouldn’t take on an entire herd. As we stay in and within the Body of Christ we will be much safer from the attacks of the evil one. The Body of Christ is powerful, of which Jesus states, “The gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” There is covering, support, accountability, and environment for love and good works to be stirred up.

A common issue today is many people claim Christianity but have no participation in the Body of Christ. What might this passage suggest?
2) Digging deeper, as you read about the covering, support, etc. in the Body of Christ you can quickly see that this involves more than merely attending a building one day a week. It involves more than adding your name to a membership roll or even signing up to serve in a ministry. Those are all great decisions and commitments, but to be within the Body of Christ is to be in relationship with the people of the church – to have a few also within the church with whom you are accountable, who know you and your life and can speak into your life. Those who help “keep you in the herd.”

Often we can begin to stagger, to lag behind. For several reasons we choose to sort of slide to the back of the herd and even outside the herd. Some of these reasons are…
a) Busy-ness. The bane of the 21st Century American. We simply crowd God and His Body out of our lives with other endeavors and priorities.
b) Sin. We are sinning and not repenting. We know if we go to church we’ll be convicted / feel guilty and we flat don’t want to feel that way. Then, as we miss some gatherings, we’ll know people will ask us where we’ve been and, well, we just don’t want to face answering all those people. So, it’s just easier to slip out, lag behind and straggle.
c) Attitude. We begin allowing ourselves to have some negative attitudes about the church or a church and instead of thinking of all the pure, noble, and praiseworthy things for which we are to be thankful (Philippians 4:8-9), we choose the bad attitude. With the bad attitude comes distancing in some relationships. We withdraw, straggle, lag behind.
d) Pride. So often we hide in a crowd. We don’t engage in those deeper relationships where someone or a small group will really know us because, well, they may actually discover we have problems. Because of our pride, we believe we should have it all together and want people to think we have it all together so they will have a high opinion of us. We want them to esteem us. We want them to think we’re “right with God.” So, we don’t engage, we stay at a superficial distance. We use excuses such as, “well if I share the real me then I am vulnerable to getting hurt.” So, foolishly and unbiblically we straggle, lag and truly make ourselves vulnerable to the real enemy.
It can happen to any and all of us – whether we’ve been believers for 50 years or 50 minutes. That is why we must continuously be “sober and vigilant.”