Congregational Singing

A three-way conversation takes place in the public praise of Christians--we speak to God, we speak to one another, and God speaks to the assembly. That's why singing is critical to Christian fellowship. Inside our praise lives a heavenly transaction, a sharing of the life of God.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 167.

Sharing in Christ's Suffering and His Comfort

Paul contends that what Christ experienced in His suffering spills over, now, into His people. What Christ experienced in His comfort spills over, now, into His people. We suffer and we're comforted because we are united with Christ, such that His life of suffering and comfort is completed in us.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 131.

Christianity is a Family Religion

When sin or faults ensnare us, we need adjustment, a course correction. Notice that such a restoration comes from outside ourselves. Others must restore us when we are caught in a fault. Our privatized ideas about the Christian faith do not square with biblical Christianity. Christianity is a family religion. We live the faith dependent upon brothers and sisters.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 112.

God's Variegated Gifts

The gifts of God's grace may be more varied than what we have revealed to us. So, we shouldn't be hung up on trying to determine precisely which gift in some list is our gift.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 79.

Spiritual Gifts

A spiritual gift is 'a manifestation of the Spirit' in an individual Christian's life and the church as a whole. In other words, a spiritual gift is how God the Holy Spirit shows up or reveals Himself in your life.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 78.

The Trinitarian Christian Life

It's really remarkable to see how Trinitarian the Christian life is from beginning to end. Consider what the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 1. The Father chooses from the foundation of the world the saints whom He calls to Himself (Eph. 1:4). The Son gives Himself, sheds His blood, for the redemption of sinners (Eph. 1:7). The Holy Spirit regenerates and seals the Christian in faith (Eph. 1:13-14). From beginning to end, the Christian life is one lived with each person in the Godhead. It is full communion with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 77.

The Trinitarian Construction of the Church

Each Person in the Trinity plays a part in putting the church together. Christ creates in His crucifixion a new body called the church ([1 Cor. 12:12]). The Holy Spirit baptizes each person into the body of Christ (v. 13). The Father arranges each member in the body just as He pleases (v. 18).

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 77.

The Lavish Living of Slaves of Christ

We can give no higher praise to God than to profess and live in such a way that everything we do points to Jesus' rule over our lives. Our fellowship with Christ is a fellowship between joyful slave and loving Master--and His yoke is easy and His burden light (Matt. 11:30). He is no cruel ruler; He is the kind of ruler or master who lays down His life for His people. What lavish living for a slave!

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 76-77.

True Spirituality

[E]very Christian is 'spiritual' in the truest sense of the word. There are not two classes of Christians--super-spiritual and ordinary. Because every Christian possesses the Spirit of God through faith, every Christian is spiritual.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 76.

God's Holy Love

The love of God, therefore, is the kind of love that belongs to the Spirit of truth. It is the kind of love that consumes the unrighteous in judgment. It is a holy love, shining without any darkness. The love that lies at the core of God's being is the kind of love you don't want to take for granted or to trifle with. While it is a beautiful and wondrous love, it is also perfect love which delights in righteousness and justice. We would not know this love and its character except that God reveals His love to us.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 62.

Love: The Evidence of Eternal Life

John is not saying [in 1 John 3:14a], 'If you go out and love other people, be a good person, generally pleasant and agreeable but not noticeably different, then you'll make it into heaven by your love.' He is not saying that loving others earns eternal life. John is saying the opposite. He means that the badge, the seal, and the proof that we have this life of God in our souls is that it works itself out in love for other Christians. We know--with confidence, assurance, and certainty--that we have passed from death to life because of our love for one another. He is saying that loving fellow Christians is evidence that new spiritual life has already come.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 59.

The Public Faith of Christianity

Spiritual fellowship with God is a profoundly group experience; it is a public experience....We enter the faith individually and personally, but we live the faith corporately and publicly. We know the life of God in our own souls personally, but we share that life with everyone else who knows it.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 29.

God's Life in the Christian

To be a Christian is to have 'Divine life' resident and reigning in a human being. Such an astounding fact of the Christian life, when properly considered and embraced, liberates and animates all who receive it.

--Thabiti Anyabwile, The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2012), 7.