Why Christians should go to Church no. 2 - The Church is a body

The ‘body’ metaphor only works if Christians remain connected to other believers in fellowship (1 Cor 12). There is surely no greater reason for going to Church than this. Church correctly expresses body life.

Donald Robinson pulls no punches when he speaks about Christians who refuse to fellowship:

The form of the church as being an actual meeting is well seen when we consider what the New Testament says about schism. To forsake the assembling of ourselves together is not schism, but apostasy. “They went out from us,” says St. John, “but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest how that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).1 [Emphasis in original]

Ouch. I think I may have been too soft on the matter. According to Robinson, to deliberately withdraw from fellowship is an act of apostasy! Unsurprisingly, I am yet to meet a person who has done such a thing and agrees with him.

Church nowadays is presented as an optional extra. We offer programs to attract people & have a “come and go as you please” attitude instead of a commitment attitude. We have made it easy for people to remain disconnected and leave.

Today it is quite common for Christians to treat their local church like we treat the local hamburger joint. I like hamburgers done a certain way, at a certain price and with quick service. I am not in the least bit interested in jumping behind the counter and cooking it myself, cleaning up or serving the other customers. I am a customer! To be honest, when I am not buying a hamburger, I don’t even give that business the slightest thought. It could be 12 months between hamburgers, but when I turn up to pay my $5, I expect hamburgers made exactly the way I like them. Where I want, when I want & how I want.

Many Christians I know have exactly the same view of church. We are nervous about membership, so we invite them to attend when they can, we can’t put them on a roster of any sort or ask them for money because that is tacky. They won’t perform any of the functions of a local church nor attend any of its business meetings (and therefore do not have a say in the future direction of the church) but they expect to be able to turn up randomly and find it functioning just the way they think it should.

We live in the age of the consumer Christian. How we choose our church is too much about what it offers and not enough about finding a place to serve. If service was the only criterion for selecting a local church, I think we would find the matter a whole lot easier.

It can’t be, of course, because there is the matter of false teaching to be avoided so clearly not all churches are equally valid as a place for your family to grow, but far too many Christians I speak with have not found the correct balance.

When John wrote his letters to the scattered Church, he explained the connectedness of every Christian with God and each other like this;

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. (1 John 1:3-4)

Little wonder so many Christians who have dropped out of fellowship lack that joy. They think they are simply opting out of meeting with a few Christians who cause them problems, but for John, this relationship with other believers is connected to our relationship with God.

And, naturally, on this topic you would have to at least read one more time Paul’s words to the Corinthian Church.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (1 Cor 12:12)

Once more we are reminded of the connection between the Church and its head – Jesus. Jesus has deliberately decided that from now on, his reign over creation will occur in the context of a body unit of which he is the head. He has decided to stick with the body no matter how badly it behaves.

Lots of Christians say they want to be like Jesus, but this is not what they mean. How would you go with that? You’re joined to the body, no matter what it does. If I understand Paul correctly, he’s saying ‘Jesus has committed himself to this body & you should to. Any moves in another direction are a denial of the gospel’.

Again Paul says,

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Cor 12:27)

How can a Christian separate from this and think God approves? I don’t think Paul could have made it much clearer, yet Christians I have confronted with this, steadfastly see it as a reassurance that despite their self imposed exile from every local congregation, God wants them to rest secure that they are still OK with him.

That’s not what this passage is teaching. It was not written to comfort the troubled conscience of Christians who do not go to Church but who feel a measure of guilt about it. It was written to instruct a divided body that it must, at all cost, unite in Christ for he is their head and it is to be that way for eternity starting now.

Paul was correcting a problem in this letter and the problem was a divided Church. There is no greater division than complete separation, but that is what many choose deliberately today.
 

References

Robinson, D.W.B. 1965, The Church of God – Its form and its unity, Jordan Books, p. 15