Incarnational Relationships
Spirituality
The Four Needs
The spirituality Christians practice constantly uncovers the reality that Christ lives in each Christian. When Christians relate to each other, their relationships are more than merely social. They experience God through one another. It is not just person relating to person, but Christ in them relating as well.
The theological term for this is incarnation, stemming from Latin roots meaning “enfleshment,” Jesus Christ en fleshed within you and me, which became possible after the Godhead was en fleshed in Jesus Christ. It is a great mystery and a powerful truth.
The Christian congregation that preaches and teaches this truth and continually reinforces it serves its members well. It makes the ultimate importance of relationships within the church crystal clear. Members are not just wearing Jesus like a garment. Jesus is in their muscles and bones. Martin Luther put it very well: each Christian is a “little Christ” for others. Or as Paul wrote:
For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another (Romans 12:4-5).
When this notion permeates the teaching and preaching of the congregation, members will increasingly realize that Jesus is part of their very identity. They begin to see every interaction as filled with God incarnate, as filled with Jesus Christ. Jesus meets Jesus is the deep truth underlying every Christian relationship.
These are some ways congregations pay “attention to the life of the Spirit,” as Nouwen phrased it. They make up the chief components of spirituality.
