Belong To Church
What is the Church?
‘I go to church’. ‘Let’s build a church’. ‘I got nothing out of church today’. ‘I enjoy my church’. We use the word ‘church’ in a variety of ways but have we ever really stopped to consider what the Bible says of ‘church’? What is it? How is it meant to function? What’s my role at church?
Biblical Images of the Church.
There are several images of the church in the Scriptures.
The People of God.
2 Corinthians 6:16 sums up what the church is.
... For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
The church is a group of people who belong to God and God belongs to them. In the Old Testament God created a people for Himself. He chose Abraham and from him came a nation which God brought to Himself. Exodus 19:3ff. 1 Peter 2:9-10 applies this directly to the New Testament church.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The people of God have a deep and intimate relationship with God. He cares and provides for them while they respond in holiness and obedience and praise.
The Body of Christ.
The metaphor of the church as the body of Christ focuses on the fact that the church is the centre of Christ’s activity now, just as His body was the centre of activity when He walked on this planet.
Ephesians 1:22-23 talks of the worldwide church as the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:27 talks about the local congregation as the body of Christ. Both are true. By speaking of the body of Christ the interconnectedness of everyone in the church is highlighted.
+ Individually and collectively we are all connected to Christ who is the head of the church.
over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. Ephesians 1:22-23
+ The individuals are all connected to each other just as a body is interconnected. Bearing this image in mind, read 1 Corinthians 12. Each and every believer in the church is a vital part of the church. No one person can claim to be more or less important than any other.
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- Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 1 Cor 12:7
+ Each and every single person is given a manifestation of the Holy Spirit (ie a gift or blessing to serve with) so that others benefit. In God’s church we are dependant upon each other and we should work for the good of each other. See also Ephesians 4:11-16.
The implications and application for our lives of this body of Christ metaphor are tremendous and far reaching. Here are a few of these implications and applications. You can, no doubt, add hundreds more to the list:-
1. Jesus is the head of the church. He is our leader and we are to be radically obedient to Him.
2. Since we are all members of the body we are to be committed to each other (to the body) in sacrificial love just as Jesus was sacrificially committed to us.
3. Each member of the body should seek to use his/her gifts and Spirit manifestations to serve the body.
4. Disunity in the body will not be tolerated by Jesus (see 1 Corinthians 1:11ff
5. Genuine fellowship (open, loving, honest, deep etc etc) is to characterise the church.
6. The body is to obey the head (Jesus) and we are to fulfil our mission - to be holy (Leviticus 11:44-45, Mark 12:28ff, 1 Peter 1:16) and to reach the world with the gospel (Matthew 28:18-20) and to build each other up (1 Cor 12:7)
Prayer:-
- Pray that the church in Egypt would be strong and secure in Christ as it faces opposition from many different angles. Pray that the church would shine the light of Jesus powerfully and brightly.
- Pray that our church here would brightly shine Jesus to the world.
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