Another Year for the Lone Ranger and Tonto

January, 2006

by: Walt Bertelsen

Don’t BE the next exciting episode!

“Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear… the Lone Ranger!” Those who grew up with the masked rider of the plains and his faithful companion need not fear that we might be living in a generation that “knew not the Lone Ranger.” On the contrary, his spirit is very much among us, deeply ingrained in the American psyche. He stands as the ideal hero, the strong true one who rescues the innocents and saves the day, the one who single-handedly (mostly) fights off the bad guys, who is universally admired—the one we long for and the one we long to be. Who could say anything bad about such a one?

While the Lone Ranger is a fictional creation, the thinking that idealizes such a hero is not fiction. It is a very real plague ravaging the Church. It is debilitating the visible Body of Christ. It is defeating the men—even here in our local body.

The Bible has a few choice words to describe this thinking. This thinking is a manifestation of the flesh, that residual part of us which seeks to be independent, and will continue with us until our physical bodies are marvelously changed at the resurrection.

If you don’t believe that Christians live with a Lone Ranger mentality, try answering the following questions (in the privacy of your own brain, so no one can accuse you of actually saying these things!):

• Would you support Church discipline of a member of your family?
• When you see another Christian in sin, do you care enough to confront him?

The way you answered those questions—or hesitated to answer them—reflects your “functional theology” of the Church, i.e., not simply what you say you believe about the Church, but how you actually operate in relationship to the Body of Christ.

Why do you go to church?

What would you say is the primary reason to go to church? Because the Bible commands it? (See Heb 10:25, etc.) That’s a good reason! But, why does God command it? Is that the only place you can worship God or hear good teaching? If that were true, then you could “do church” at home.

Let me be clear: God is God, and owes no one an explanation for what he does or desires. But God, who only is pure love and faithfulness, does all things for good, to conform us to Christ. This means that assuming our place within the local body is the best and safest place for us to be—it is His plan.

Don’t miss the body

Christians routinely speak of the “Body of Christ.” This is, indeed a biblical term (see 1 Cor 12:12-31; Eph 4:11-16, for example). Is it simply a beautiful figure of speech? It is much more. It is one of the most important pictures of the Church in scripture. 1 Cor 12:13 makes it plain that believers have been placed into the body (baptized into it) by the Holy Spirit. It points to an actual spiritual union. It is a vital (living) relationship with the living Christ that we share with all other true believers. So we really are a “body.” It should not surprise us that the One who created the human body in all its intricacy and its inter-connectedness and mutual dependence uses that body to teach us the truth of how we are related to our Lord and his people: His body is to reflect who he is.

Returning to yesteryear: The point of speaking about the Lone Ranger is that each of us must submit our thinking so that God can change it (Rom 12:1,2)—and not seek to be independent from God. Next: we will look at what the truth of the body means in relationship with other believers.