Before you start sending in the protest emails about the poor theology reflected in the header, let me complete it.
“You can’t have Jesus … without His Body”.
And His body is the church. You cannot be a Christian and say you don’t need the church – that’s just not logical. I mean, you didn’t baptize yourself, did you? I came across someone this week who professed to be a Christian, but is not part of any church - and hasn’t attended a church for many years. He was almost proud of the fact. “Nah, it’s not for me, mate”, he said, “You don’t need to be part of a church in order to be a Christian.” This person is an ex-preacher’s kid (he’s grown up now and has a family of his own), and he was proud of the fact that he was still “a Christian”, but did not “see the point of being part of a church, or organised religion”. I asked him if he and his wife had an organised family life. He replied that they did. And so, me being me, asked, “So, organisation really isn’t the issue when it comes to church life, then – especially since the church is the household of God? Why don’t you like organisation if it is so important to the running of your own household?” He wasn’t sure where to go after that. This man was proud of his little “hoopsoma”.
I pressed the issue while he was silent and said, “You’re a believer, right?” He nodded warily and I stated a fact: “Well, you cannot have Jesus without His body. That’s like saying you are a parent, but have no kids.”
Belonging to Jesus means becoming part of His body – the church. There is no getting away from that fact. For a start, there are over 30 “one another” commands in the New Testament which are impossible to obey for any believer unless they properly belong in a church somewhere – and are functioning properly in it. And that raises another issue: no church can say to another church, “We don’t need you.” Because that church is also part of the body of Christ. This is what makes denominationalism (as a fiercely held, exclusory, sectarian thing) so very wrong.
Even Christ could not be Christ without the Father and the Spirit. They existed in community in eternity long before the earth became the earth and light became light. Christ did not send Himself …
Now, having said all that – and you know I’m right – what is it with Christians who are part of a church (sort of), but never function properly as part of the body of Christ? The intention of being baptized into Christ is that we become a functioning part of the church. God expects this …
Romans 12:5 (NIV)
“… so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
The apostle says a lot of things in this one sentence: though many individuals, we are one body, we belong to each other – we’re not even our own, sole property anymore! We each have some kind of claim on each other because of our baptism. And that claim, in essence, is proper functionality in the body. If a believer thinks for one moment that they can have Jesus, but don’t want or need His body (the church) they dishonour Him and their fellow believers, and they are knowingly causing dysfunctionality in the body.
1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (NIV)
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”
Furthermore …
1 Corinthians 12:15-20 (NIV)
Now if the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.”
Christian oneness, our unity in Christ, is no individual, self-centred thing – it’s oxymoronic to think that. To argue that you have Christ, but don’t want to be part of His body – and be properly functioning in it - is a “hoopsoma”. An arrogant pretension raised up in contradiction to the knowledge, will and purposes of God. That “hoopsoma” needs to be torn from our house made of thoughts, because it simply cannot be obedient to Jesus Christ – and it diminishes us in so many ways, not to mention, is disobedient to God.
2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
“And so, we demolish arguments and every pretension [hoopsoma] that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Think on these things.
Ps Milton