01.28. Chapter 2 The church
Chapter 2 The church A living community
God is concerned for the individual and he deals with people personally. He offers his salvation to all, though it is of benefit only to those who accept it personally. But when people accept it, God does not leave them to live independently as if personal security is all that matters. He builds them into a community of people to whom he has given new life through Jesus Christ. Because all these people are united to Christ, they are also united to one another, no matter what era they belong to or what racial background they come from. This vast international community is called the church. The Bible uses a number of illustrations to show what sort of community the church is. These illustrations emphasize that the church is something living and active, but only because of its union with the living Christ. It is best understood by comparing it not to a political, business or academic organization, but to a family. Christ is the head, and the people in it are brothers and sisters. It is held together not by organizational mechanisms, but by the common life in which all share. Its strength depends not on rules and regulations, but on love.
Families, however, often fall short of the ideal, and so does the church. As long as Christians are part of a world spoiled by sin, they will contribute to the problems of any community they are part of, including the church. There will at times be friction in the church, as there is in any family, though people should be willing to admit mistakes and put right what goes wrong.
Part of something bigger
People can easily become discouraged because of the imper-fections they see in the church, and so try to live as Christians apart from the church. But it is not possible to reject the church and still live the sort of life God wants. The church is not a club of like-minded people, but a community formed by God and formed for a purpose. God has a plan to remove all evil and conflict from the universe, and in the end bring perfection, peace and unity through Jesus Christ. The church is part of that plan.
Ever since the first humans rebelled against him, God has been working in human history, directing it towards its ultimate destiny. In Old Testament times he formed a community of his own people, Israel, which in due course produced the saviour of the world. Some of this old community accepted the saviour, and from them God built a new community, the church, through which he has continued to work. The significance of this new community, in contrast to the old, is that Christ, having died, is now alive and working through it. The church is likened to a living human body, where Christ is the head and Christians make up the rest of the body. All Christians are united with Christ and are, by that fact, united with one another in the church. They are all part of the body, and therefore in a sense part of each other. Christ lives in them as individuals and in the church as a body. He does so through the Holy Spirit, whom he gave as his representative to his people after he left the world and returned to his Father.
All Christians of all nations in all eras make up the universal church. Those who live in any locality are a local expression of that church – a miniature of the timeless, worldwide church. All Christians (to return to the illustration of a human body) are part of the body of Christ, and they function properly as Christians only as they function as part of that body. Through the church they help in developing God’s plan for the human race, and at the same time help in developing themselves as people.
Growth and strength This concern for development, or growth, is one reason why Christians should be enthusiastic about participating fully in the life of the church. One of the greatest of the early church leaders, Paul, emphasized this by referring again to the illustration of the human body. Just as different parts of the body are designed for different functions, so different people in the church are fitted by the Holy Spirit for different tasks. Each person should make some contribution to the life of the church, and in doing so will benefit both himself and the church.
Some, perhaps only a few in each church, are fitted for roles of teaching and leadership, but their job is not to do everything. On the contrary they have a responsibility ‘to prepare all God’s people for the work of Christian service’. Then, as people learn through the church how to work for God and live for each other, they will ‘become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature’. They will ‘grow up in every way to Christ, who is the head. Under his control, all the different parts of the body fit together, and the whole body is held together . . . So when each separate part works as it should, the whole body grows and builds itself up through love’ (Ephesians 4:11-16).
Freedom under Christ The Christian church is remarkable for its ability to function in any age and any culture. This is partly because the Bible, the book from which the church takes its guidance, is not a book of rules and regulations. It does not give instruction concerning all the practical details. If it did, the day-to-day procedures would be so tied to the world of the first century that they would be unsuitable in another age or culture.
Instead, the Bible tells a story. It first describes how churches grew up everywhere as the early Christians spread the good news about Jesus. Then it goes on to record certain letters written to churches that needed instruction along the way.
There was no standard pattern on which the early churches were organized. They met in any ready-made place available, and they functioned by making whatever arrangements were necessary as needs arose. Churches differed in their composition and style, though all held to the same basic beliefs and practices. In all churches, for example, Christians met regularly to worship, pray, sing praises, read the Scriptures and receive instruction in Christian teaching. They also went out to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ so that others too might believe. Not only did the early churches have no set form for local operations, but they had no central organization to control all the churches or hold them together in one body. Each church governed itself through its leaders, though it had fellowship with other churches. The churches were bound together through the common faith that Christians had in Jesus Christ. Christ was the head of the church, the life of the body, and the source of the church’s unity and strength.
Since the church is something with life – a body, a family – it is able to adapt. The Spirit of the living Christ lives within it to guide and direct. He enables present-day churches, in whatever country, to work out the application of timeless principles in their circumstances, as the early churches did in theirs.
Life in the church The church’s life consists of more than the regular meeting of Christians. Certainly, they will want to spend time together, formally and informally, as a church and in small groups. This is part of the church’s life. But the church must be concerned with more than the well-being of those within it. It must be concerned for those who do not yet share its life in Christ. This means that the church should be energetic in making known the message of God’s salvation and in helping those who are the victims of sickness, loneliness, injustice, hunger and other misfortunes, whether small or great. It has a responsibility to the people in its locality and to people in distant nations.
However, the church will be effective in reaching out to others only if its own relationship with God is healthy. Prayer, teaching and worship are therefore essential to the church’s life. God is the source of the church’s power, and the church draws on that power through prayer. He is the guide to the church’s conduct, and therefore the Bible must be taught constantly and clearly. He is, above all, the Lord of the church, and therefore he is to be worshipped by his grateful and adoring people. The worship of the church may contain many elements – singing, praying, meditating, reading, preaching. It may express both love and awe; it may combine quiet reflection and joyous outbursts. One person may lead or many may share. No matter what form church services may take, two things are always important: giving glory to God and giving help to his people (Ephesians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 14:26).
Fellowship with Christ
Worship, then, is a two-way movement – from God to the people and from the people to God; in other words, communion. This is well expressed in that simple ceremony that Jesus himself introduced, known as the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. Jesus asked his followers to remember him regularly by the simple act of eating bread and drinking wine together. The bread (symbolizing his body) and the wine (symbolizing his blood) speak of his sacrificial death for his people. But this miniature supper is not a memorial service for a dead person; it is an act of fellowship with a living person. When believers join in this act, besides declaring afresh the fact of Christ’s death, they enjoy afresh all that the living Christ is to them. As they share literally in bread and wine, so they share spiritually in Christ. There is living fellowship between forgiven sinners and the one who died for them and now lives in them. In addition to having fellowship with Christ, those who share in his ‘supper’ have fellowship with one another. In worshipping together in this way, they strengthen the unity within their church. They remind each other of the common life they share, and so are encouraged to exercise the same sacrificial love for each other as Christ exercised for them.