About Church, Part 1 (of 2)

 

The church is the representative of the faith it houses. But what is the church? For many religions that may hold a variety of answers, but for the Christian faith, which I am focusing upon, there is but a single answer.

Many view the church as the building where believers congregate to listen to sermons, sing hymns, and take communion. It is why the body of believers is called a congregation, another word for assembly. The church in embryo is mentioned by our Lord in Matthew chapter 18, but does not enter the New Testament until Acts chapter 2. Neither chapter denotes a building. However this only tells us what a church is not: namely, a brick and mortar structure beautified by human ingenuity in an effort to stimulate religious thinking. If I were asked what a church is, I might answer, “an assembly of fallible people gathered together to worship an infallible God.” The church is a body of Christians, two or more to be precise, gathered in Jesus’ name.

 

So what does that mean? What does it mean to gather in Jesus’ name? The idea of using someone’s name implies being under his authority, or gathering in his authority. Christ is our heavenly Benefactor, and we gather as a church to go about our Lord’s business. When we gather in His name we are His representatives, and His work we seek to do. Just as Jesus worked in His Father’s name and not His own purposes, we are to follow His example. The church is a group or assembly of Christians seeking to continue God’s will on earth. We do not do this perfectly of course; the church once again stated, is filled with imperfect people serving a perfect God. We are still capable of sin. We can play the hypocrite. Carnality wrestles with us. But by virtue of the Holy Spirit we can, individually and corporately, be led into all truth.

 

One of the final commands of our Lord on this earth before He was translated into Heaven was this: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,” Matthew 28:19, 20, RSV. One of the criteria of an elder, bishop or overseer in the church is the ability to teach, 1 Timothy 3:2. Those who give themselves to teaching are worthy of what Paul terms “double honor,” (1 Timothy 5:17). This teaching must be grounded in what is coined as “sound doctrine.” Paul informs Titus that by sound doctrine he may, “exhort and convict those who contradict (it),” Titus 1:9. Teachers need to learn how to “rightly divide” the word of truth so that we need not be ashamed as a workman put in employment by Jesus Christ our Lord, 2 Timothy 2:15. As we read from Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus it becomes clear that sound doctrine is the cornerstone for biblical preaching, proper understanding of God, and corporate worship. Sound doctrine (as noted above) is the only remedy given by the Holy Spirit to correct aberrant teaching. A teacher who does not relinquish heterodox doctrine is to be rejected as a teacher, “after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning,” Titus 3:10, 11. Paul refers to this teacher as “divisive,” or disruptive since sound doctrine would be harmonious with the united testimony of Scripture preached within a God-fearing church.

 

In the same gospel that gave us the commandment to make disciples of all nations we find the grounds for excommunication from the church. Matthew 18:15-17 shows a step-by-step process where a brother in Christ is addressed in private, then spoken to with several witnesses so the conversation can be verified as to what is said. Finally the issue goes before the entire church if the first two efforts fail, leading to public excommunication if the believer will not relinquish his sin. Paul concurs in 1 Corinthians, telling us that if someone claiming to be a brother in Christ will not cease sinning they are to be excommunicated to shame them for choosing the very thing that put his Savior on the cross over obedience, 1 Corinthians 5:9, 13.