Being Good Pharisees: The Joy of Inauthentic Community

Abstract

What does it mean to be a community in right relation with each other? That question, as well as a partial answer found in Taylor University’s Life Together Covenant, still bear the marks of Wesleyan evangelical convictions. Exploring those convictions shines light for us on why this question and Taylor’s covenant matter for Taylor University and, in their own unique ways, all Christian institutions of higher education. Addressing that question then comes through three points. First, we must never forget that Christianity is a social religion. Second, Christianity is social because its mission is to be a people, a nation called out of every nation, who are not like the other nations, for the sake of the nations. Finally, integral to Christian mission is to become what we have been made through baptism. In the end, righteousness cannot stem from mere human efforts as we endeavor to live out this mission. In contrast, we must depend upon the Holy Spirit to empower us to be the intentional community God has set forth for us in Holy Scripture.