Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Revelation 21:1-3 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rev.21.1-3.NIVUK
Maybe I’m more aware of it now as I work in the media, but I have never known a time when the church worldwide has been so derided and scorned by other people.
Some of it, we have to admit, to our deep shame, is deserved. When abuse or financial misconduct or bullying have taken place, there is no point excusing or it or trying to sweep it under the carpet and pretend it didn't happen. Neither is it at all appropriate for us to hire lawyers to silence accusers or publicists to manage our image.
It’s wrong. Full stop.
Immense and often unrecoverable pain is inflicted when the church ceases to act as the church.
But what is it? What should it do? What should it be?
We know from Scripture, loud and clear in black and white, that the church is the bride of Christ. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian church:
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
2 Corinthians 11:2 NIVUK
And as John states in Revelation:
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
Revelation 19:6-8
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
Revelation 21:2
However, in order to have a ‘free hit’ at criticising the local expression of the church, many of us separate this idea of the church as the bride of Christ from our local church. After all, which of us would dare attend a wedding, walk up to the groom and say, ‘Thanks for the food. The party's been great. You look really great in that suit. But your bride? Sorry, my friend, but she is pig ugly.’
None of us, right? That would be so impolite and offensive.
Yet few of us would have any issue criticising the local expression of the bride of Christ.
Take one of my friends, for instance. When I meet him in the street, it's rare that he doesn’t criticise the church of which he is a member. Yet he is a member of the church. He is part of it. So when he criticises the church, some of that criticism is directed at himself.
I fell into this trap for many years. Let me tell you: it makes no sense.
I have also spent years as a missionary working with churches that were ‘difficult’ because the people within them were difficult: stubborn, legalistic, uncooperative, stuck in their ways, no vision for anything but maintaining the status quo, even a few where I actually sincerely doubted the motivation of the church leaders.
But I had to stop myself from walking away and giving up. They were a local expression of the global church. They deserved my best efforts and my affection. Even if work there was hard.
As followers of Christ, we must love the church, whatever it looks like or state that it's in.
Why? Because Christ loves the church:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Ephesians 5:25-27 NIVUK
So if we despise the church, we are out of step with Christ – we are not following Him.
Out of reverence to Him, then, we should not criticise or bad-mouth the church, and certainly not where unbelievers can hear us.
But what is the church?
The Bible teaches that it isn't a building. There was a church long before there were church buildings.
Neither is it a denomination. Denominations are a man-made invention – simply a way of categorising like-minded believers.
No, a church is a community of people who are seeking to follow Jesus. A church is a local expression of the Body of Christ.
A Christian without a church is fundamentally at risk. They don’t receive any of the benefits – and there are many – of being part of the Body of Christ. They don't receive any of the encouragement towards love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25). They can quickly become stale, bitter and lonely people.
They can quickly fall away.
Of course the church isn't perfect. It can never be perfect. It's made up of imperfect people. Even its highest leaders are imperfect. None of them are infallible. I know that in some circles it’s blasphemous to say such things – both in Catholic and Protestant circles – but right theology and a proper view of history prove it to be true.
And neither does this excuse the litany of unconscionable acts done in the name of the church. They are inexcusable. They are sin.
But what it does mean is that the global church of Jesus Christ – His Body – and every local expression of it – are His design as Creator and Sustainer of all things, including the Church, and it’s sole Head (Colossians 1:15-18).
We might have a lot of problems with the people in the church and even its leaders. These are issues we should settle between us as human beings (although if laws have been broken, we absolutely should use our recourse to the criminal courts to stop the offence from being repeated).
But we cannot have an issue with the church. It’s God’s design. He built it. He sustains it.
Oppose the idea of the church and you oppose God.
But what does a true church look like? What does it do?
There are a ton of fakes out there. I even heard of an atheist church that gathers to sing popular songs, listens to music by atheists, listens to a talk, drinks tea and biscuits and then goes home.
That is not church. That is nothing more than a placebo spirituality. It contains none, absolutely none, of the ingredients that make church work.
The problem is that many so-called Christian churches don’t contain them either. Even the otherwise wealthy church in Laodicea received this verdict:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Revelation 3:20 NIVUK
Do you see this? They had all the trappings of a wealthy and comfortable lifestyle, and yet...
And yet God was on the outside.
And what is the secret ingredient that turns a ragged bunch of people with various ages, backgrounds, bank balances and ethnicities into a church?
God.
No God means no church.
But what does it look like when God is truly in a church?
Over the next weeks, we will examine God’s design for what church should be. We’ll look at 1 Corinthians chapters 12 to 14, with reference also to Paul’s design for a church in Ephesians 4:1-16.
However, we should not use this as a stick to beat our own fellowship with. We should not use it was a tape to see if our church measures up. That is not why Paul wrote these verses.
No, these verses are to challenge individual believers in the church to change one by one, then, as a result, to change the church.
If we meditate on these verses and find fault with other people, then we’re like someone looking in the mirror to get ready to go to work, but spending the whole time imagining someone else and criticising them for the way they look. As James says:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.
James 1:22-25 NIVUK
So, as we meditate on these verses, don't use them to draw up a list of your own church's shortcomings, or as a list of reasons why you shouldn't go to church. That will never do.
No. Sit before the Word of God. Read it carefully and prayerfully. Listen to what it has to say. And then let it change your thoughts and attitudes.
And if you, by some chance, find something wrong with your church, some shortcoming that you know needs to be put right, then instead of marching into a church meeting demanding change, why don't you first model the change you’d like to see?
The church is the Bride of Christ, like it or not. Jesus didn't ask you what you thought of His Bride before He betrothed Himself to her. He isn't asking for your opinion now.
But He is calling you to respect her, to love her, to strengthen her and to build her up.
And over the following weeks, we’ll learn how He wants us to do it.
Questions
1. What does the church mean to you?
2. Why is it important for a Christian to be committed to a local church?
3. How do you show your respect and love for the local expression of the Body and Bride of Christ?
Comments