Last week I wrote an article that received a lot of positive feedback, for which I am thankful. You can read it here if you didn’t on Thursday: DENOMINATIONAL CREEP. As nearly all of the articles I write are, it was designed both to teach and to stir up contemplation. The funny thing about being a preacher is, you don’t always know how your preaching is going to be received, but you do always know what you have to do with your preaching:
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
(2 Timothy 4:2)
According to Paul, my preaching must “reprove, rebuke, and exhort” and, if it doesn’t do one of those three things, then it wasn’t Biblical preaching. Understand that I rarely teach with the explicit intent to exhort, or the explicit intent to reprove or rebuke. It’s not like I say to myself: “This one is only going to encourage people” or “this one is only going to rebuke people.”
Instead, I just teach the lesson and let the chips fall where they may. Many people spoke to me over the past few days and said that Thursday’s article greatly encouraged them. In that case, I fulfilled the command to preach and “exhort” with my preaching. It’s also possible some read the article and felt rebuked. In that case, I did as Paul commanded, too.
Don’t blame me if it steps on your toes, and you don’t even need to thank me if it boosted your spirits; the Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). It affects the heart who hears the preaching of it as needed. If the shoe fits, wear it.
Having said all that, consider this article an addendum/follow-up to last week’s, which can be summarized with this paragraph taken from the end of the text:
You DO have to be a member of the church of Christ. How you become a member is by obeying Christ’s commands to be saved. When you do He adds you to His church (Acts 2:47). If it is a fact to say “you must be saved” (and it is) then it is a fact to say “you must be a member of the church of Christ” (and it is).
Now, upon reading that, someone might learn the wrong lesson or try to read between the lines and miss the simple and plain statement I was making. What someone might say in response to the article is:
Well it sounds like you’re saying as long as you show up to a building that has “CHURCH OF CHRIST” on the sign then you’re saved
Setting aside the fact that I didn’t say that at all in the article, the question no doubt may arise and thus needs to be addressed:
Having the words CHURCH OF CHRIST on the sign outside the church building you regularly attend does not grant you salvation. Going over all the history of the Restoration Movement, and its place in the history of God’s Kingdom would be too exhaustive for this article, but at the end of the day, the Restoration Movement basically consolidated itself into a commonly agreed upon identifier that ended up on the signage: CHURCH OF CHRIST. It’s a good, simple, Biblical description of God’s people and it wasn’t already being used by any denomination, so it made sense for the non-denominational, anti-denominational people of the Restoration Movement to use. That doesn’t mean it had to be used or that it has to be used or that some other name wouldn’t have been (or be) just as good. The kingdom of Jesus has no specific name or title. It is just the body of people saved by the Lord. We are His…
“church” (the word means “to be called out”)
“of” (a word that designates ownership)
“Christ” (being the One who called us out and owns us)
But the generation of Bible believers who settled on that title as a good one commonly to use could have, just as easily, instead settled on the phrase “KINGDOM OF CHRIST” to put on the signage. And, had they, the only thing that would have been any different in my article on Thursday is I would have said:
You DO have to be a member of the kingdom of Christ. How you become a member is by obeying Christ’s commands to be saved. When you do He adds you to His kingdom (Colossians 1:13). If it is a fact to say “you must be saved” (and it is) then it is a fact to say “you must be a member of the kingdom of Christ” (and it is).
I’m not talking about signage, I’m talking about salvation. It’s not about the words on a placard, it’s about the doctrine being taught, the love being given, the communion being shared, and the fellowship being enjoyed. Such things are identifying markers for God’s people to find one another, assemble with one another, and worship God with one another.
So, as I said last week I will say again:
You DO have to be a member of the church of Christ. That is to say, you DO have to be a member of the body of saved people (Ephesians 1:22-23) that have been called out of the world by Christ the Savior (Romans 16:16). How you become a member is by obeying Christ’s commands to be saved. When you do He adds you to His church of saved people (Acts 2:47). If it is a fact to say “you must be saved” (and it is) then it is a fact to say “you must be a member of the church of Christ” (and it is).
But just because someone shows up to a building that has CHURCH OF CHRIST on the sign doesn’t mean that someone is saved, nor does it mean the people in side that building have the right fellowship, the right communion, the right love, or the right doctrine. The sign is a tool to help; not the end-all, be-all. The building next to the sign is just a place where people meet to worship God together. My prayer is that the place where you meet weekly has the right fellowship, communion, love, and doctrine. Certainly, some of the people who attend are not yet Christians but, as has been said, just showing up doesn’t save a person. Jesus saves a person. When He does, that person is added by Jesus to His church (not to a building, but to a spiritual institution), and then, as saved people they meet (in a building, perhaps) to worship God with others who have likewise been saved, and to encourage those who haven’t been saved to be added to His church, too.
~ Matthew