The Curse of Individualism
June 3, 2024.
We are living in a time of individualism while forgetting the significance of connection with others. We have abandoned the importance of sharing with others and receiving sharing from them. We have been cursed with the false notion that we can exist and prosper without the need of others in our lives. This is an astronomical lie and we must turn to God for His answers.
I appreciate the book Lost Connections by Johann Hari. He is not necessarily a Christian writer but is a prolific journalist on subjects about the issues that face people in these days of growing isolation. In his book, Hari has drawn from the research of John Cacioppo, a well-known neuroscience researcher. Cacioppo discovered in his research that loneliness causes a “significant amount of depression and anxiety in our society.” He concluded that humans exist because we learned to cooperate and this led to formation of tribes with people who connected with one another in various ways.
Where Hari sees a developmental, evolutionary reason for our need of connection, I see something even deeper. I see that humans have been created by their Creator to be tribal people — to need connection with one another for their physical, social and spiritual survival. We were not created to be isolated, individuals but to be part of a family of caring, loving members of a community. For this reason the Bible says “male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27). He then told them to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (1:28). Of course that command assumes families that grow out of their first connection and result in being fruitful and multiplying this family life structure.
The Bible calls this “fellowship.” In the New Testament the Greek word is koinonia which means sharing of things we have in common. The word “share” assumes that words, thoughts, and actions are flowing between people. They are connected in many ways. Since God made us to need this connection with others, when the Holy Spirit was given to the first believers it is said “ . . . they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers” (Acts 2;42).
Peddlers of religion have made this into the modern traditional church with its many programs and ritual but a clear reading of this verse will show that the Holy Spirit was inspiring the early disciples to meet together in family groups for having a meal and sharing their hearts. It is possible, as Hari would point out, to be in the midst of a large group of Christians going through the motions of worship but still be lonely. Unless there is viable sharing between the members, loneliness continues. Genuine fellowship is the cure for being alone.
The apostles’ teaching was a major part of what was shared because God was using those early leaders to bring doctrinal clarity to their times together. So, these early followers of Christ ate together family style, shared what they were learning and experiencing, and prayed together because the communication included God as well who promised He would be with them and and dwell in their midst (Matt 28:20; 18:20). What better context is there for sharing than the dinner table where everyone is looking into each other’s eyes and sharing their hearts with joy?
John Cacioppo discovered in his research that people who are lonely tend to develop more depression and anxiety then those who have connections with others. Hari relates his definition of loneliness that makes my point:
Loneliness isn’t the physical absence of other people, but the sense that you’re not sharing anything that matters with anyone else. If you have lots of people around you — perhaps even a husband or wife, or a family, or a busy workplace — but you don’t share anything that matters with them, then you’ll still be lonely. To end loneliness, you need to have a sense of “mutual aid and protection,” with at least one other person, and ideally many more.
Sharing, mutual aid and protection. Those are powerful words defining the antidote for loneliness. We were created to be people connecting with others in real ways through sharing things that matter to us. Through that process we ward off genuine loneliness that leads to depression and anxiety.
Our recent venture into online activities spurred on by COVID 19 isolated people, including school children, from one another, and raised an emergency flag. Schools, families and businesses saw the internet as a way to do business with the fear of COVID in the air. We masked our faces and used Zoom and other programs to attempt our communications only to discover along the way what John Cacioppo and Johann Hart concluded through their research.
Their joint conclusion after much research was obvious: “social media can’t compensate us psychologically for what we have lost — -social life.” I would add the word “spiritually” to this conclusion knowing that we have a Creator who has made us to seek and find genuine sharing fellowship. Social life — -life In connection with others.
The apostle Paul put it this way:
. . . speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ, from whom the whole body, being joined and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the properly measured working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love (Eph 4:15, 16).
The apostle speaks here of “fellowship” explaining how it works in the functioning of the body of Christ. He says here that the “church” is not a human institution but an organic spiritual body where all the parts must function so that the whole body can prosper. He would not have dreamed of taking human control of the body of Christ by establishing his own clever programs intended to meet the needs of the saints. He knew that the Holy Spirit had been sent to lead us in functioning together as a spiritual body. He knew our job was to be led by the Holy Spirit. He encourages sharing of our lives with one another with each member doing its part as led by Him. This sharing process allows the Christ who is our Guest of honor to cause the body to grow and build itself up in His love.
Often I am accused of defaming the traditional church because of my bluntness in defending what scriptures say about God’s simple, pure way for the church. Actually, I am simply trying to alert current believers to the way God intended His church to function for their benefit. The Bible is clear on this matter. God knows what we need in His church to guard against the loneliness spoken of earlier and encouraging the sharing of things we have in common that matter to each of us. The enemy had COVID and social media in his quiver before but he has many other weapons to use against us. Before his next attack we need to see God’s way of protection — His church, the body of Christ led and empowered by His Holy Spirit.
Individualism is a curse in that it moves us to buy into the lie that we can go it on our own; that we don’t need connection with others. It is a return to the Garden of Eden where we ignore what God has said and set out on our own. We are not made for that. We need the togetherness of the body of Christ and the determination to be part of the corporate process by which we grow spiritually.
Paul warns in 2 Timothy 3:2 that the last days of this age will be a difficult time and he follows with a long list of evil characteristics of that generation. The first of those mentioned is the term “lovers of self.” That is individualism on steroids. That’s where planet earth is headed and the antidote of this hyper individualism is the body of Christ overcoming the world’s ways and living in the ways of the God who created us to connect with one another in Him. The world will continue on its headlong descent into disobedience but He will have a remnant of people who connect with others and let His life flow among us through the sharing of fellowship.
