Only Jesus

Only Jesus

At first glance, the expression “only Jesus” sounds so appealing. You see it on the walls of churches, and religious leaders use it in their publications as an indication that they are not bound to people. But did Jesus come into the world to free Himself from people? Didn’t He come to share their need and to help them out of their difficulties? He was never self-sufficient. He loved people. He gave His life for them. This expression, “only Jesus,” can be a pious mask that hides all sorts of things. If a person gets offended, he can withdraw and comfort himself with the thought that he needs “only Jesus.” Peo­ple are merely a source of disappointment and vexation.

Jesus prayed to His Father: “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.” John 17:22.

If John had said to Peter, “I don’t care what you say, Peter, because I only need Jesus,” would Jesus’ prayer then have been fulfilled?

Jesus is the Head of the body (the church). He holds the body together; He supports it and knits it together with joints and ligaments, so that it grows with the increase that is from God. Col. 2:19. If the arms were to say to the legs, “We have no need of you; we only need Jesus,” where would the body be?

Each one of us must have our own connection with Jesus Christ, but it can never be “just Jesus and me,” because the body consists of many members. The reason a person wants to have only Jesus is that he has become bitter while enduring the process of being melted together—that process where the fire consumes the enmity within the church so it can grow the growth of the body. He distances himself from other people to preserve something for himself, thus avoiding the chastisement that accompanies the process of melting together with others in the church.

“The whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” Eph. 2:21-22. Each stone in the building is in close contact with the one next to it, and its increase is according to the effec­tive working of every part. A stone cannot remove itself from the building just because it cannot bear the other stones and then say, “All I need is Jesus.”

In Jesus’ time, the builders rejected Him who became the chief cornerstone, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. 1 Pet. 2:7-8. The builders of our day also reject Him as the chief corn­erstone of the building. They want to have “only Jesus” without Him being a chief cornerstone in a spiritual building. This is why He becomes a rock of offense and a stumbling block for them.

“And He Himself gave some to be apos­tles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equip­ping of the saints for the work of minis­try, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . . .” Eph. 4:11-13.

If a person won’t have anything to do with all these servants in the church and wants to have “only Jesus,” how can he grow up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ? If someone should try to teach in the church, he would be asked to keep quiet, because people don’t need him. They have “Jesus only.” If a shepherd should try to tend the lambs, he would be reprimanded, because the lambs don’t need him. They have “only Jesus.”

Could it be that “only Satan” has fabri­cated this alluring covering, and thereby de­ceived the minds of many? From what I can see, the covering appears to be both too short and too narrow. It cannot hide folly, even though it is greatly esteemed by the builders of our day.

When God places a covering over the glory, then it is long enough and wide enough.