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COLUMN: LIVING THE FAITH

A Failure to Understand the Lord's Church (2)
  by Richard Mansel, managing editor

On January 31, 2010, The Tennessean newspaper published
a story by Bob Smietana entitled, "Churches of Christ
drop isolationist view, work with other faiths."

Doug Sanders at Otter Creek says, "In the Church of
Christ, we had all the answers, and if we had the
answers, that meant everyone else didn't. It's kind of
embarrassing to admit it, but that's the way it was."

His quote can be applied to the larger issue of
understanding the Lord's church.

Previously, we discussed how the Lord's plan was that
there would only be one church (Matthew 16:18;
Ephesians 4:4). The church was his body and its purpose
was to advance the gospel and bring glory to Christ
(Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians
3:20-21).

We would be immersed into the body of Christ for the
remission of our sins and added to the Lord's church
(Acts 2:37-38,47; 1 John 1:7). Accordingly, we're to be
sanctified, set apart from the rest of the people in
the world (Romans 12:1-2).

We are to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works
of darkness" ( Ephesians 5:11). We have been called
"into His marvelous light" to live as "sons of light"
(1 Peter 2:9). "You are all sons of light and sons of
the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness" (1
Thessalonians 5:5).

If we are in the Lord's church, we are set apart from
the world like Noah and his family. The ark and the
church are alike in that they separate the righteous
from the unrighteous. Clearly, they could not be in the
ark and outside of the ark at the same time.

Christ is the head of the body, the church. He decides
how we enter his body. We can try to claim that people
are in the church, but if the Lord did not add them,
then they are not in the Church that Christ built (John
14:6).

If we consider the Word of God to be true, then we must
understand that we cannot change it (Psalm 119:89). The
problem is that man wants the power to decide who is in
Christ and who is not. However, our puny efforts have
absolutely no bearing on what God has decided. We can
call an orange a Mercedes all day and it will still be
a citrus fruit.

Scripture is absolute truth and if we go outside of
what we have authority for, we cannot be pleasing to
God. When we do not enter Christ, because we refuse to
accept what Scripture teaches on salvation, or we do
not worship or organize ourselves like God's Word
dictates, then we cannot be in the Light.

Churches do not have any truth outside of God's Word.
If we take the Word and mishandle what it says, we will
not please God.

If we are in the Lord's church, we must not develop the
Lot's wife syndrome (Genesis 19:26). She looked upon
the world of sin longingly and coveted their way of
life. We must look to Christ as the source of all
fulfillment and peace (John 10:10).

The Lot's wife syndrome leads us to be embarrassed at
the church because our sole focus is to make the world
happy. If we follow behind the world like a puppy, we
cannot be pleasing to Christ. We can only have one Lord
of our life.

If our model is the denominational world with its
carefree attitude about Biblical authority, we will
naturally find Christ's way too restrictive and we will
be embarrassed at the idea of one church, truth and
salvation. We will do all that we can to soothe souls
and put a smiley face upon Satan's façade.

At the same time, we need to be sober and remember that
God cannot validate our error, no matter our feelings
or intentions.

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