GROWTH IN GODLINESS
This post will be the last in a long-running series about the church. I have tried to view a 1700-year-old problem of distorting how God's people are to build Christ's kingdom by gathering together according to His commands and the Holy Spirit's gifts, leading and empowering. To alter the way of Christ is to build with wood, hay, and stubble, as Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 3.
Following this series end, I intend to look in depth at Jesus Christ as we see Him in the Gospel accounts. The 18th-century French philosopher Voltaire said, "In the beginning, God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to return the favor ever since." It is all too easy to read our experiences into Christ's behavior in the Gospels if we are not careful to first fully acquaint ourselves with God as He is revealed in the Old Testament.
The Sin Of Omission Is By Many
Do we believe that all scripture is God-breathed and should be followed, or else we sin? If yes, how do we interpret Ephesians 4:11-16? "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers." In every case in the scriptures where the Greek word tous is used, it is translated as "the" except in 4:11, where most but not all translators use the word some. If we have no percentage given, then we do not know how many prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers God gives.
Therefore, the work of service, to the building up of the body, verse 12, could be my many and not some. Furthermore, we all attain "to the unity," verse 13, and "to a mature man, verse 14, "no longer children," verse 15. If we ask the question from whom, verse 16 tells us, "from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth... building up of itself..."
Voltaire also said, "Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do."
The Sin Of Omission Is Caused By Few
When a few men understand themselves to have a unique calling for only some, that automatically leaves the many with little to nothing to do. The Stephens of the church is, by comparison, nothing important.
The problem is this: According to Jesus Christ, every child of God can only be a child of God by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. According to Paul, he was crucified or put to death. Nevertheless, he lived, yet not Paul but Christ lived in him. Therefore, every part is to function by making disciples.
The Sin Of Omission Need Not Be
After coming to Christ through Billy Graham, I was left without someone to disciple me. Six years were utterly wasted as I could not grow by myself. Billy was sent to millions; we can wonder if that would have been necessary had the church accepted its calling to go. Maybe God uses certain few men, not because He has chosen to build the church that way but because so many do not accept their calling to go.
Instead, the small groups build themselves up and plant other small groups commissioned to do the same. Following the command to go becomes a complete team effort, not just for a few who never end their constant teaching to those who never really use their learning.
When we read a verse like John 7:38, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" Are such rivers only for self-gratification or all those in earshot to receive the Gospel message?
The Sin of Omission makes the constant teaching meant to grow others to evangelize, disciple, and plant other gatherings worthless. The Ekklesia is not for self-aggrandizement but to praise God for what He is doing and pray to God for fulfilling the usefulness and reproduction of gatherings. Just like families fill the earth, so should gatherings of believers. Scholarship, professionalism, entertainment, wealth, and worldliness ruin the church. Ekklesias build up themselves and others.
Special note: The world, the flesh, and the devil make life difficult either way, but doing anything God's way is always the right thing to do.
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