When we talk about intimacy it will usually revolve around discussions of sex, sexuality, or in our describing some form of physical contact such as sexual intercourse. But the reality is intimacy has a wide application in that it can be a state of being relating to having close familiarity with someone or something. And it’s often revealed through affectionate mannerisms associated with being in love with another person. However if we move away from the social aspects of it for a moment we also see it has meaning in regards to detailed knowledge or an understanding of someone or something I.E. place, subject or period of history.
Yet there is one thing that’s unique about intimacy it has a self-sustaining influence if one is comfortable regarding who they are in their life. And it’s this manner of intimacy that’s too often not seen in consideration of one another within a Christ union. Too many times, the chaos and anxieties of life defer any intimacy in the relationship with Christ often leading to a sense of despair and/or dissatisfaction. Thus, in our search for more truths regarding this union, this aspect of intimacy needs to be among the words of God to find out if done right leads to a more secure life.
In scripture, intimacy is not always in respect to a sexual relationship but is revealed more as being in a sensual one spiritually. 13 So, when you pray in your private prayer language, don’t hoard the experience for yourself. Pray for the insight and ability to bring others into that intimacy. 1 Cor 14:13 (MSG) All believers are challenged or should I say commanded to live life in a way that reveals an image of God to whoever we encounter in life. This is traditionally taught as being part of one’s witness and testimony of who we have become through Christ. And yet we’re not seen as an offspring of God, but religious individuals who stand in reference to scriptures that speak of Christ and Him crucified. I see this as a rejection of truth that’s expressed in one’s witness of who He is and what He has done. Since it goes without saying there are far more who’ve rejected Christ than who’ve received Him as Lord.
In many unions between believers and Christ, there’s no intimacy to the degree it’s seen as a spiritual posture of love. What is meant by such a statement? If you take a look into your manner of salvation through Jesus Christ, you’ll see that you’ve confessed your sins and received Christ as your Lord. And now you’re in an intimate relationship to not just Christ, but God Almighty and the Holy Spirit, a relationship that’s expressed through three different personalities though it’s singular in its foundational context of love. Meaning that no matter who is affecting our senses spiritually it is done in a manner of love that is common in nature to all of them.
Within a Christ union, it is difficult to distinguish between this manner of intimate love, and affectionate passions arising from the sensual activity of the soul through spiritual intercourse. And yet the latter should be accountable to the former in that nothing should be done outside of the truth each is content in regarding who they are, not as a male or female, but as individual children of God. It’s this priority contentment to live as an offspring of the highest that’s alluding most believers today. As a result they’re way too attached to the things in this world they’ve easily garnered an intimate knowledge of in aspect to their lives. And in a way, it’s the same as a rejection of Christ by those whom we have testified to ourselves.
So, when believers are more comfortable in the knowledge of these things than in a knowledge of the one who came to deliver them out of the world. It often affects unions in a way it tends to keep them apart more than bring them together. Truth is each of us has faults that are revealed in our living witness and as a result of them, we tend to see each other as incomplete. Or in a more direct meaning, we see them not as a sibling that we’re willing to be content with. This shows we are lacking in the intimacy of love we are to have for Christ that is not made up of sensual arousals or any sexuality of flesh, which is Eros, or any sensuality of soul, which is Phileo, but a love that arouses the senses of the spirit, which is Agape.
4 Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, 5 Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, 6 Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, How many of these preceding aspects of Agape love are working in your union with Christ? Now don’t get excited this isn’t about what you are or not doing or any failure to do all that’s revealed in Agape, but it is about you knowing what manner of love this truly is. 7 Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. It is easy to see how God loves us in spite of our faults as He isn’t looking at our present failures or even caring about our past ones. He is focused on what we will become by faith in Christ.
This ability to see by faith what each of us is to become as siblings of the family of God is what makes all the difference in intimacy. 8 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. No other form of love exists in the world that can ever compare to the one love that is above all. 9 We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. We are not perfect yet, but we are becoming what God said we will be as long as we by faith receive the truth as revealed by the Spirit. 10 But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. 11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. 12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
This intimacy that’s to exist between us and Christ isn’t forged by the laws of Moses or by any laws of righteousness it’s forged by Agape love. All other things will come to light as they’re supposed to when we do as His siblings when commanded by Christ in love with all our heart, mind, and soul. 13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. 1 Cor 13:4-13 (MSG) The thing about Agape is that it brings a sense of contentment into one’s life to the degree they no longer see all the chaos and anxiety of it.
True intimacy in a relationship with Christ is to be content in who one is as His sibling among those who are the same by faith. Thus, anyone who testifies of a deconstruction of their faith and have since left the body of Christ are in my opinion without such an intimate love. I say this because I can’t see one having a relationship that’s built on the love of God intimately stroking their spirit to accept who they are becoming to have done anything less than rejected Him.
