Author : Keith Sharp
A few years ago I was discussing the work of the church with a lady who is a Christian. When I noted that individual Christians have benevolent responsibilities the church does not have, she objected by observing, “The church is just Christians.” The implied conclusion is, Whatever the individual Christian does, the church is doing. Let’s examine this assumption.
Christians have responsibilities in several relationships. Since we must “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17), we must act according to the will of the Lord in all these relationships.
We have obligations in the home, the family relationship. For example, the husband and wife are to give each other the “affection due” one another (1 Corinthians 7:3-5). Surely we will agree that, when the husband fulfills his wife’s need for affection, that is not the church at work!
We also have economic responsibilities in business. We are to work to earn a living (Ephesians 4:28), and this gives each of us the right to start his own business (Acts 16:14; 18:1-3). But the church is limited to a first day of the week, free will offering of its own members as the means to raise its funds. If a Christian is in the dairy farming business, that doesn’t mean the church is in that business.
We also have social responsibilities in the community. We should so live before others that we draw them to Christ (Matthew 5:16). In an effort to be a good influence in the community, I was for several years a member of the Kiwanis Club, a civic organization. Probably few would question my right to join the Kiwanis Club, but neither would any say that made the church a part of the Kiwanis Club.
We also have obligations and liberties toward civil government. I believe Christians have just as much right as unbelievers to enter politics in order to hold public office (Romans 16:23). But I don’t believe that gives the church the right to interfere with government affairs (Mark 12:17; John 18:36).
The local church is more than just Christians. It is Christians in a certain relationship, a spiritual relationship (John 18:36; Romans 14:17; Ephesians 1:3,22-23). It is when these Christians in this spiritual relationship act collectively that the local church is functioning.
This is exemplified in Matthew 18:15-17. If your brother sins against you, you should tell him alone about it. If he will not listen, you should take with you one or two witnesses to talk to him. If he still refuses to repent, you should tell it to the church. Neither one Christian acting alone, nor two or three Christians from among others in the church acting together constitute church action. It’s when all the Christians who regularly worship together act as one in regard to God’s work that the church is at work.
Another illustration is found in First Timothy 5:16. Each believer should care for needy widows related to him, and the church must not be burdened with their care. Although an individual Christian is at work, the church is not.
I have encountered several arguments to get around this fact. Many brethren used to say, “Whatever the individual Christian may do, the church may do.” But individual Christians may, indeed must, provide for needy widows kin to them, but the church must not be burdened with their care (1 Timothy 5:16).
Then I heard a preacher who refined the argument thus: “What ever the individual Christian must do, the church may do.” But, individual Christians must provide for the widows kin to them, but the church must not (1 Timothy 5:16).
Another debater said, “These are individual obligations collectively fulfilled.” But what obligations may we fulfill collectively? If I go to a brother about a sin he has committed against me, and he seeks my forgiveness, should I still tell it to the church? (Matthew 18:15-17). No, that would show I had not forgiven him! Should I turn the care of my widowed mother over to the church? Absolutely not! (1 Timothy 5:16) The only way I can know which individual responsibilities may be collectively fulfilled are those the Lord identifies as collective (church) work. We individually should sing praise to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19), and we may and should do that in the public worship assembly (1 Corinthians 14:15,23). Whatever the New Testament identifies as church work, we may do collectively.
Brother Mac Deaver had an especially clever dodge. He asserted:
All passages which authorize the performance of an act based upon the peculiar ground of one’s being a Christian are passages which apply with equal force both to the church and to the individual.
What in the world does that mean anyway?! What is “peculiar ground of one’s being a Christian”? Does that mean our motive for doing it is that we are Christians? Everything a Christian does is to be motivated upon the ground he is a Christian (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17). Is he referring to obligation? The law of Christ is for both saint and sinner (Mark 16:15), thus, there are no obligations peculiar to one’s being a Christian. Does he mean relationship? The only peculiar relationship we have as Christians is to the local church, and we find what to do in this relationship by studying what the work of the church is.
Brother Rocco Pierce introduced a novel argument to prove “there is no difference between the church and the individual Christian.” He asserted, “I am the church” and introduced First Corinthians 6:15,19 as “unanswerable proof.” He argued that, because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, we belong to Christ, and claimed that, if he were guilty of fornication, the church was guilty of fornication. So Brother Pierce is a church (assembly) of one, and if he commits fornication, the church has done so. No, Brother Pierce is a member of the church but not the church, just as my foot is a member of the body (1 Corinthians 12:27) but is not the body (1 Corinthians 12:14). If he commits fornication, the local church of which he is a member should withdraw from him (1 Corinthians 5), just as my gall bladder was removed when it became gangrenous. By the way, his argument implies that, if the church does withdraw from an erring brother, it withdraws from itself! After all, he is the church.
The local church is more than just Christians. It is Christians in a certain locality who have agreed to worship together regularly and to do God’s work together collectively through the use of common funds (1 Corinthians 1:2; Acts 9:26-28; 2:46; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4). We must not confuse our individual obligations in other relationships with the work of the church.
