"Primary: earliest, original, of the first rank, of first importance, chief." So reads the entry in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1976).
What, I ask you, is the church's primary task? Not what are the many good things the church should be doing, since there are a number of good answers to this question. But rather, what is really of first importance in the life of the church? How should leaders in your church think about doing the primary thing, that which is truly of first importance?
Spiritual Amnesia
It seems to me history reveals that the church of Jesus Christ is always in danger of spiritual amnesia. This danger seems even more evident to me now than it has been in many, many years. Today we argue about all kinds of church-related issues and needs. We even occasionally speak about revival and renewal. And we promote numerous causes-social, spiritual and political-but rarely do we address the need to restore the primary thing-the proclamation and place of Jesus Christ as Lord.
"He said I am sorry but this is at least the tenth time! I don't know what to do. I am told that it's my Christian duty to forgive so I try to do it. But each time I forgive him, he changes for a little while and then returns to the same behavior. I have a gut feeling that I am handling things the wrong way. He never really changes and I just get angry. What should I do?"
Sound familiar? People facing circumstances like this must learn to distinguish forgiveness from reconciliation. Forgiveness is always required by God. Jesus clearly warned that God will not forgive our sins if we do not forgive those who sin against us (see: Matthew 6:14-15; Mark 11:25).
I have often heard the contrast made between spending one hour a week in Sunday School and twenty or more hours, a week watching T.V. The point is usually that we can scarcely counteract the secularist influence of twenty hours of T.V. with one hour of Sunday School. This sort of observation creates what you might call a "quantitative hopelessness." It gives the impression that life-changing impact is directly proportionate to the quantity of time spent with a particular influence.
"That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire to devour them. More over this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house." Ezekiel 23:37, 38, 39
INTRODUCTION
Subject: When they that attend ordinances of divine worship allow themselves in known wickedness, they are guilty of dreadfully profaning and polluting those ordinances.
Samaria and Jerusalem, or Israel and Judah, are here represented by two women, Aholah and Aholibah. And their idolatry and treachery towards their covenant God is represented by the adultery of these women. They forsook God, who was their husband, and the guide of their youth, and prostituted themselves to others. The baseness of Aholah and Aholibah towards God their husband is here pointed out by two things, viz. adultery and bloodshed: They have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands.
I. They committed adultery with other lovers, viz. with their idols: With their idols have they committed adultery.
II. They not only committed adultery, but they took their children that they bore to God, and killed them for their lovers. Their hearts were quite alienated from God, their husband, and they were so bewitched with lust after those other lovers, that they took their own children, whom they had by their husband, and put them to cruel deaths, to make a feast with them for their lovers. As it is said in verse 37, "And have also caused my sons whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire to devour them."
The apostle Paul urged the Christians in Galatia, and therefore us, to "live by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16). He also urged them and us to be "led by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:18). And this way of living is clearly contrasted with "the works of the flesh" (Galatians 5:19). And, by way of even further contrast, we are all to grow in producing "the fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22). I have been thinking about how this section of Paul's letter relates to the local church, particularly to how we do church.
I am not talking here about the church as a supra-temporal reality, or as the mystical body of Christ. I am speaking rather of the people being the flock of Christ in community together. I am thinking about the church in exactly the same way Paul writes about it in this Galatian letter; i.e., as a real live group of people living life in relationship with one another by the life-giving presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their midst. This is not about ecclesial theory or church doctrine, at least as we have tended to think about it, but rather about life together. When Paul says "you are led by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:18) the "you" that he refers to here is not a lonely, private, singular you-but rather the corporate "you" who are God's people living in relationship with each another. If this were not true, then the whole passage makes no sense at all. In fact, the very way that we walk in the Spirit, live by the Spirit and then produce the "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22) is always in relationship with each other. You can't love without another person to love. You can't practice kindness unless there is someone to be kind toward. And you can't be patient unless there are people you could easily be impatient with.
The church of Jesus Christ is a people called out from all nations, Jew and Gentile, to be worshippers of the true God. These form a sent community in the world to declare among all peoples the gospel of grace, to care for the poor and oppressed, and to reflect God's nature through holy lives and good works. This church is at once both visible, meeting in local congregations, and invisible, the universal church comprised of all true regenerate believers. True churches are distinguished by the biblical gospel, the ordinances of Baptism and Communion1 and the exercise of church discipline.
Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you; so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.
The second book of Chronicles brings to our attention three notable periods of reformation in the life of God's ancient people. The first occurred in the reign of Jehoshaphat, and is recorded in chapters 17, 19, and 20. The second, and perhaps the most remarkable, occurred in the reign of Hezekiah and is described in chapters 29-31; and the third in the reign of Josiah, as given to us in chapters 34 and 35. When these chapters are compared, it becomes evident that all three "movements" had certain things in common.
Reformed Suspicions
Reformed Christians are usually suspicious of any talk of unity among Christians of differing doctrinal convictions, yet the pursuit of peace and unity among believers is a high priority in the New Testament (Hebrews 12:14; Ephesians 4:1-6; Philippians 2:1-4; John 17:21; Romans 12:17-21). Biblically, we are obligated to strive for an orthodox ecumenism that will recognize all professing believers as brothers in the Lord, while excluding all known unbelievers (even if they call themselves "Christians" yet are not--cf. Revelation 2:9; 3:9). In other words, the boundaries of our fellowship must be as wide as the kingdom itself, but no wider. We ought to be as ecumenical as God himself is, for who are we to reject someone the Lord has accepted (Galatians 2:11ff; Romans 14:4)? The oneness of God demands that he have one people, one Church (John 10:16; Ephesians 2:14ff; Galatians 3:15ff). This pursuit of unity must take place at all levels--individual, familial, institutional/denominational, even international. Christians in different positions of leadership in the Church will have different responsibilities in reuniting the Church and restoring peace, but it is a task that all who name the name of Christ are called to undertake.1
