To Be the Church
Words have meaning but they change with their usage. The word “church” is a word that is used to translate an ancient word that means something completely different than its present usage. Its meaning has changed with time as people’s understanding of it faded or was confounded by tradition.
In most modern translations the word “church” is an Old English replacement for the Greek word ekklesia, a group of people called out of a city-state to administer the authority of a city. The word used in the New Testament always refers to an assembly of people coming together for a distinct purpose. Never is it used of a building or religious program of any kind.
Jesus used the word ekklesia of the corporate body of believers that He was spiritually building together of which He said, “upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matt 16:18). The word is translated “church” of course. The ekklesia, the church, is the Lord’s mission for planet earth. We are His masterpiece, His workmanship, His divine project. We are the center of what He is accomplishing on earth, His body on the earth after His resurrection and ascension. Paul calls the body of Christ “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:23).
Almost all religions have their temple, priest and sacrifices. Scripture makes it clear that Christ is the temple of God, He is the High Priest and our sacrifices are praise and thanksgiving to Him (John 2:19–21; Heb 6:20;13:15). Christ is the temple and He has made the body of Christ, the ekklesia, the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19). So Christ is our temple, Christ is our High Priest and His death on the cross is the final sacrifice that settles all issues of sin.
He never intended for us to build sacred buildings in which to worship Him. Those are pagan practices of the pagan religions of the world. We are His building, His temple in which He lives (1 Peter 2:5; Eph 2:21, 22). As I wrote earlier, the body of Christ, the church, is “. . . the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:23). Christ dwells in His body, the church, His people and through it manifests Himself to the world.
He never intended for us to have human priests or a high priest or religious clergy who stand between us and the Father. He is our High Priest and we are declared to be “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9; Rev 1:6). Every believer is a priest unto God privileged to enter into the holy place with bold confidence because of the forgiveness provided by His blood (Heb 10:19).
He never intended for us to offer up religious sacrifices or do religious works as provisions for our sins. He is our sacrifice and the cross is the altar upon which we offer to Him our praise and thanksgiving knowing the source of our forgiveness in Him (Heb 10:22; 13:15).
To be the church is to realize we are the body of Christ, a people called out of the world to glorify our Lord by living in the guidance of His Holy Spirit and being gradually transformed into His image. We are not a human organization controlled by people but a spiritual organism under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13; 1 Cor 2;10–13). This requires some things promised to us by our Lord.
First, it requires that we cast aside all our false ideas stated above about what it is to be His church. If we lean on man’s understanding instead of what He says about us, we will never realize the fullness of our individual and corporate calling in Christ. We need a return to scripture to determine His definition of His church.
Secondly, this requires that we must understand that if we are His body we need to taking part in activities that encourage life to flow between the members. Paul put it this way:
. . . speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
This is true fellowship. Sharing our lives in Christ with one another. Praying together. Sharing our daily struggles and victories. Fellowship is not just about words but actions of love and blessing toward one another that build up individuals and our corporate expression. This is body life which involves closeness, eye to eye, and shoulder to shoulder contact with one another. Large church gatherings do not provide these qualities of close sharing.
In this passage from Ephesians we see that close fellowship involves speaking and living truth with one another,as each member of the body realizes that they are part of a whole and doing their part to contribute spiritual life to the spiritual body, the church. Out of this fellowship growth comes and the church is strengthened and built up in love.
Thirdly, to be the church requires that we live in unity with one another. Some Christians find this one hard to swallow because they look around and see such division and doctrinal confusion in the lives of supposed believers. True unity is impossible in the eyes of those who refuse to see it from God’s vantage point. We argue and point our faultfinding fingers at those who disagree with us on matters of doctrine. Pre-trib rapure vs. post trib, Calvinism vs. Free will, immersion or sprinkling, women in ministry, the style of our music, the gifts of the Spirit, and on and on the arguments go. Our unity is not in these things but in our possession of Christ.
Jesus said that those who follow Him, His church, would express the same unity that He and His Father have toward one another. He prayed “. . . that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21.) Verse 20 of this passage shows that Jesus was praying for of His church throughout the church age. Also we know that this was a real, practical unity because He declared that it would cause the world to believe that the Father sent Him.
Genuine unity, not a fake unity where we hold hands over the fences between us, but the real supernatural unity that the citizens of Jerusalem witnessed in the first century Christians, is a game changer because it is supernatural and its only source is God.
Paul clearly says that a church being properly equipped, serving and growing spiritually will “. . . attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:12, 13). Instead of writing this off as an accomplishment for the millennium or one already accomplished in the first century, why not look at this as a promise of our hope for today’s church in Christ as led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Yes, in Christ we can literally come to a place of unity of our faith and the full knowledge of Christ so that we are fully grown expressing His image and fullness!
Next, being the church requires us to be in submission to the One who has been given to us to lead us into all truth and keep us from the quarrels and divisions that cause the world to reject us as hypocrites. That One is the Holy Spirit who is surprisingly ignored by much of today’s traditional church. For some strange reason much of the church ignores the ministry of the Holy Spirit and His gifts. Could this be caused by so many churches and Christians abusing the gifts of the Spirit by turning them into toys to play with instead of powerful instruments of ministry?
Paul clearly says that in our gatherings “. . . each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification” (1 Cor 14:26). Psalms, teachings, revelations, messages all contribute to the building up (edification) of the church, the people of God.
The Holy Spirit is the Person of the Godhead who is primarily ministering during this age of the church. Instead of being guided and empowered by Him we are grieving Him and quenching His life among us (1 Thess 5: 19, 20; Eph 4:30). We quench Him by ignoring His part in our lives and we grieve Him by doing the very things that cause divisions and problems among us (vv. 31, 32). We gather in large groups too big for sharing and allow only one or two people to share and wonder why we are not being edified and growing in Christ.
We can be one in Christ. We can experience His unity if we will allow Him to walk among us and do the Father’s will in our lives and in His church.
Lastly, I agree with Paul that we must seek ways to maintain simplicity and purity in our devotion to Christ: “I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ”(2 Cor 11:3). Paul’s fear was well founded because he knew the powerful influence of Satan and His world system.
Simplicity is being single-minded. We have lost track of Christ in the midst of our many complicated activities and entertaining ideas. We have allowed the world to pull us from our purity by pushing its impure ideas and market driven practices on us. Our motivation has become nickels and noses, money and people, instead of Christ manifest in His church.
To be the church is simple. Christ is knocking at the door and we need to answer the door and let Him come in to us to lead us forward into His fullness.
