The Importance of the Church
There's a lot of Scriptural ideas about the church that we Christians talk about, but there's very few that we take seriously. Here I would like to ask you to take a look at some Scriptural ideas of the church. All of the links below go to sections on this page (so you'll go there instantly, no loading or waiting).
Literally Christ's Body!
We, Rose Creek Village, believe that the body of Christ is not just an allegory but a reality. Jesus, our Master and Lord, lived in a singular body for 33 years (or so) when he came to earth 2,000 years ago. After that body ascended to heaven, however, he, being God, now lives in a corporate body by the Spirit. We are his body. He should be moving us the same way he was able to move his arms and legs when he was on earth 2,000 years ago. However, his arms and legs didn't have their own minds to compete with his. We, as the arms and legs of his corporate body(“members” in 1 Cor. 12 is literally “limbs”)—we have a choice all the time whether we will be moved by the head or by ourselves.
The head of a body will never move that body around with the parts disconnected. There's not a hand over here and a leg over there. Bodies don't function that way. There's an illustration we like to use here that goes like this. If we found the severed hand of a friend of yours named Frank, threw it in the middle of the living room, and said, “Hey, Frank's here,” everyone would be horrified. On the other hand, if Frank was in the next room, but his hand was on the doorjamb so that it was the only body part you could see, and I said, “Hey, Frank's here,” then you'd be glad. What's the difference? In both cases, you can only see his hand. The only difference is that in the latter case, the hand is connected to the rest of the body.
I don't believe that the body of Christ is an illustration used of the universal church. The universal church is referred to as the bride of Christ. It is only the local church that is the body of Christ, and the local church should be connected to one another. In the local church, the eye should not be able to say to the hand, “I don't need you.” In the local church, no one should be able to say, “It's just me, Jesus, and the Bible.” That's nice, but your Bible says, “Exhort one another every day, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” You face being deceived by sin if you only have Jesus and the Bible and you don't have the daily exhortation of your brethren. Your Bible also says that we grow as every part does its share (Eph 4:16; Col. 2:19). You don't grow by yourself.
It is very hard for loners to receive this teaching. They want to be okay with just Jesus and the Bible, but it is rather inconsistent to say you only need Jesus and the Bible, but then ignore the Bible when it says that you need daily exhortation and grow only with the help of your brothers and sisters. Your Bible isn't going to do you much good if you don't believe it or don't do what it says.
It is also very hard for American Christians to take the body of Christ seriously enough. We've been acting like we are in unity just because we attend a meeting together once a week for centuries. That is not the togetherness that the early church knew. Here's Paul's picture of what unity and the functioning together of the body of Christ should look like:
Fulfill my joy by considering one another, having the same love, being of one accord, and of one mind. Let nothing be done through ambition (lit. partisanship in a political sense) or empty pride, but in lowliness of mind esteem one another better than yourselves. No one look out only for their own things, but everyone also look out for the things of others. (Php. 2:2-4)
The body of Christ must move together. A hand is not only moved by the brain. It requires the shoulder, upper arm, and forearm to be useful. This is why both Eph. 4:16 and Col. 2:19 say that it is the joints and ligaments that supply the strength of the body. If you know anything about the human body, you know that is a terribly inaccurate illustraction. The joints and ligaments don't supply anything in the human body except the connection of the various parts. In Christ's spiritual body, however, it is exactly the connection of those spiritual parts that supply us with strength and growth.
As Every Part Does Its Share
Most every Christian knows that the Bible calls the church the body of Christ. In fact, there is a whole chapter of 1 Corinthians devoted to the subject. But is this just something we say, or do we really believe it?
1 Cor. 12:26 says of our bodies, and thus of the body of Christ, “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.” Notice that it does not say, “All members should suffer with it”; it says we do suffer with it. Is this so? Does this happen in most churches? If one member goes through sickness or the loss of a job or some other crisis of life, do the other members really suffer with him? Many churches have prayer chains that will pray for sick members, but for the most part, if a Christian loses a job, he goes through the suffering of it with his natural family, not his spiritual one.
There are two ways to solve a problem like this. One is to fix the symptom. We do not share in the sufferings of other Christians enough, so we can try to notice more when another church member loses his job or faces some other crisis. The second way is to find the real source of the problem and fix that. In this case, there is a reason that Christian don't share each others' sufferings.
The reason is that we don't really live like one body in general. The Scripture says, “The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12:21). However, what we American Christians typically say is, “All I need is Jesus and the Bible. I don't depend on any man.” We don't understand that together we are the body of Christ, and if we are not together, then Jesus has no body through which to minister to the earth.
We are fond of the song “This Little Light of Mine.” It's meant to be taken from Matthew 5:16, which says, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” However, the “your” in that verse is plural, not singular, and the context is the light of a city set on a hill. Jesus said that it is our unity that would cause the world to know that the Father sent him (Jn. 17:20-23). He said it is our love for one another that would cause them to know that we are his disciples (Jn. 13:34,35). These are things that cannot be done alone.
Look at the first church in Jerusalem. Their unity was so great that they called nothing their own and shared all their possessions. This was not a temporary thing to the apostolic churches. Almost 200 years later, a Christian lawyer by the name of Tertullian would testify, “One in heart and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly possessions with one another” (Apology 39). Paul said that there should be “no schism in the body, but the members should have the same care for one another” (1 Cor. 12:25). He exhorted the Philippians, “Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel” (Php. 1:27). He told the Ephesians to “give all diligence” to maintaining the unity of the Spirit. The church was to take care of one another. This was so much so that Paul told the Galatians to do good “especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10).
The unity of the church is a spiritual unity. The saints are called to maintain that unity, not create it. It is created by the Spirit of God.
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