Church: His body, His bride

What a glorious collection of unglorious people! 

I’ve been very indecisive about what I want this post to be about, and have decided not to overwhelm you with thoughts, particularly as I’ve come across great resources summarising what I’d want to say anyway. So I’m going to be focusing this post on what it means to be the member of a local church (since this is what a lot of people have been posting or asking me about anyway) rather than the church as God’s universal body. You might like to check out what the Bible says about the local and the universal church (both here and here). I also recommend our brother Hans’ post “5 questions to ask when you are bored with your church”. At times, it is appropriate to leave your local church to find another one, and Hans also offers some helpful thoughts. My pastor Mike Paget’s sermon “Church: Life together” is also immensely helpful (sorry for the sound quality). 

Okay. Now for my own, far less eloquent thoughts (they took a long time coming I know!). In the past few years I’ve been really challenged by my current congregation to grow in my willingness to love and to serve the members of my church. My pastor once put it as being committed to saying, “this is my church, and I will bleed for her.” For me, it was revolutionary. We’re not called to attend church just for what it offers us, but to serve and encourage others. 

Being a member of a church is not easy. You’ll never get along with every single one of your brothers and sisters. Sometimes you’ll be at completely different stages of life, with different responsibilities. Sometimes you’ll enjoy different hobbies. Sometimes you’ll feel tempted to yell at each other in disagreement. Sometimes there’s a really awkward person who stands too close to you and only responds to your attempts to make conversation with yes/no answers. Why is the church so uncomfortable?

Because unlike social clubs or other community groups, a local church is often united only by Christ.

And because of that, it’s important to remind ourselves of what the value and purpose of attending and actually serving in a local church is.

I absolutely love the description of the early church in Acts 2:

 ⁴²And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. ⁴⁴And all who believed were together and had all things in common. ⁴⁵And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶And  day by day,attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

I’m fairly certain every Christian I’ve talked about this passage with agrees that this is a beautiful image. This is what church under the Lordship of Christ should be like. And if this is what a local fellowship can look like, then most of us (I hope!) want in. It’s also interesting to note that this kind of fellowship isn’t just about going to a service once a week. These brothers and sisters are devoted to serving Christ together, to doing life together, to caring for each other. It takes a great deal of energy and commitment to do this. But they do it with such joy - they are glad, they are generous, and they overflow with praise to God. It’s a wonderful image of people meeting together to worship the Lord and grow in spiritual maturity, seeing many added to their family each day.

Church is also a context in which we serve one another with the gifts that we’ve been given. Each of you are blessed with spiritual gifts that are valuable for encouraging and edifying others. These spiritual gifts are given for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). Ephesians 4:

¹¹And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. ¹⁵Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

I know we all know that the internet is an incredible opportunity to serve each other with our gifts. There are people I’ve met through tumblr who are a great encouragement to me, who share their words and teaching and prophecy and prayer. But there is something precious about fellowship done in person. There is something wonderful about eating meals together, in packing up a church hall together, in laying hands on one another, to worship together side-by-side. You have gifts that will build and edify His body much better in person than over a blog. It is much more personal, and at times it takes much more patience as well. But let us be reminded of Romans 12:3-8, and not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but instead to focus on using our gifts to serve one another, whatever they may be. Brothers and sisters, let’s not waste our gifts.

I’ve also been reminded recently of the fact that for Christian who meet together, the fellowship they share is a witness to those who don’t yet know Jesus. Church is also a context in which non Christians can see that we are His disciples and witness Christ’s love manifested in His people. Jesus said in John 14:34:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. 

While no-one has ever seen God, when we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete (1 John 4:12) I have many brothers and sisters who came to know Jesus because they were encouraged by how they saw church members love one another. Seeing God’s people love each other radically made them search for the reason behind this love, and find Jesus’ love for them. If you’re a Christian and not a part of a local church, will you be the only witness to those you know who don’t know Christ? Are they experiencing the love of only one person who in their mind, just happens to be a Christian? Or are they being challenged by how different the love shared between brothers and sisters is to the world’s idea of friendship?

And finally, we need each other. 1 Corinthians 12:

It is tempting at times to think that you’ll be fine  without brothers and sisters to encourage you and keep you accountable in this race, but the Bible tells us that’s not how it is. We are made to be in fellowship with other believers. What you offer the Christians around you is so valuable for their growth in spiritual maturity, and what they offer you is so valuable for your growth. We all know that it’s really hard to be a Christian in this world. Being a Christian on your own is even harder. 

My dear brothers and sisters, we are called to hang in there. Hebrews 10:24-25:

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

I pray that we will respond in obedience. I pray that His Spirit will guide us all individually to see how we can stir up others to love and to good works. I pray that His Spirit will strengthen us in times of temptation, that we will not neglect meeting together, but that we will persevere with encouraging one another. I pray that we will remember how important this is as Jesus’ return draws nearer and nearer, and I pray most of all that God will be glorified by His people.