The Mission Of The Church
For years we have preached the church as an essential institution. Though this fact has yet to be established in the minds of aliens, it is to be admitted by every member of the church of Christ. The Lord's church is essential, but essential to what?
If the church is essential, it then must be admitted that it is essential to those purposes for which the Lord built it and to those needs the Lord designed the church to fill. Without the church these purposes would not have been served, the needs would not have been filled. Else the church becomes an ALTERNATIVE, rather than an ESSENTIAL.
We can better understand the work of the church, the organization of the church, and a great many other things concerning the church, when we see the purposes for which the Lord built the church.
That wherein the church is not essential is apparently not that purpose for which the Lord built the church, since the church is admittedly essential, and that to the purpose for which he built it. There are a great many things wherein the church is not essential. We can better see the purpose for which the church was built by eliminating those matters wherein the church is not essential and thereby those purposes for which the Lord's church was not built.
May I point out first that the church is not essential to the social needs of men, for their social needs were being amply provided for prior to the existence of the church. If these needs can be filled otherwise, the church then is not essential to them and it was not for social purposes that the Lord brought the church into being.
Nor was it for fraternal purposes that the Lord established the church. Else the church enters into competition with those institutions which claim to be purely fraternal. May I point out that the church cannot do one thing in the team of fraternalism that cannot be done by an organization which exists solely for fraternal purposes. The church is not essential to the fraternal needs of men if those needs can be satisfied otherwise and therefore it was not for this purpose that the Lord built the church.
There are those who think of the church as an institution charged with providing recreation for the body, but there are two good reasons why this could not have been the Lord's reason for bringing the church into existence: First, the apostle Paul relegates the physical needs of men to a position of secondary importance by his statement to the young preacher in I Tim. 4:8. The Lord did not die to purchase his church that men's "secondary" needs might be met, for he had in mind the satisfaction of men's "primary" needs. Secondly, the physical, recreational needs of the body were being taken care of before the church existed, and, beyond that, are being taken care of today aside from the existence of the church. We see men and women, boys and girls, not even members of the church, who are often in better health than members of the church. There is not one thing that the church can do or can provide in the realm of recreation that cannot be supplied by organizations which exist simply for recreational purposes. Therefore the church is not essential to those needs, and it was not for that purpose that the church was built.
Nor was it for business reasons that the church was built. First of all, most of us look on the church as a "non-profit organization." Secondly, a church can exist and function efficiently and scripturally without there being a single "business man" in the congregation. All the members may be employees, or even servants. Thirdly, that which the church does may not even be considered good business. For example, if it were all "strictly business" (and I hesitate to mention this, for fear there will be those who would endorse such) church auditoriums could be rented out for civic gatherings during the week; class rooms could be rented out for office space during the week; parking space around the buildings could be sold or rented for commercial parking, and on and on we could go. Yet the church wasn't built to teach men better business methods.
The church was not even built for humanitarian or philanthropic purposes. Humanitarianism improves the lot of humanity in this world with no regard for the world to come. There is not one thing the church can do in humanitarian or in philanthropic endeavors that cannot be done as well, or possibly even better, by purely humanitarian institutions.
I have long thought that God's people could run "first place" in any race God assigned them to run. But the reason so often that churches of Christ make no better "showing" is that they try to run in a race God never assigned to them in the first place! The church is essential to that for which the Lord built it; but when you find a matter in which another institution can do as well or better that which the church is doing, you can mark it down that it wasn't for that purpose that the Lord built the church, and consequently the churches are running in some races in which they have no business!
If the church was built to satisfy men's primary needs, and the church is essential to the satisfaction of those needs, let us find those needs and see for what purpose the Lord built the church.
In John 18:36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." Paul the apostle says in Col. 1:13 that the Father "hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son:' In Phil. 3:20 he informs us that our "conversation (citizenship, A.S.V.) is in heaven." In the Lord's church we find an heavenly citizenship! No other institution on the face of the earth can make this available to men. Therefore in this the church is essential, and for this purpose the Lord built the church.
From Eph. 2:21-22 we note the following: "In whom (Christ) all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Cor. 3:17) Peter tells Christians, yea, members of the church of Christ, "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house." (I Pet. 2:5) In the church of the Lord is found a dwelling place for God! Of no other institution on the face of the earth can it be said "Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people," as Paul spoke of the church of Christ when writing to the Corinthian church. (2 Cor. 6:16) In providing a dwelling for God in the Spirit, the church is essential, and it was for that purpose that the Lord built the church.
In Eph. 3:21 we are told that the realm wherein we may golrify God is seen to be the church. Jesus tells us that in our 'good works' God is glorified. Yet since God is glorified in the church, only those in the Lord's church will be blessed for their activities. We may note instances of good having been done, yet without reward, because the deeds were not done within the realm wherein God is glorified, the church of Christ (Cf. Matt. 7:21-23; Acts 16:17; Acts 19:13-16). Peter further informs us that in the name 'Christian' do we glorify God. (1 Pet. 4:16) Yet we glorify God in the church; therefore only those who are members of the church of the Lord rightly glorify God in the wearing of that name. In this the church is essential, and it was for that reason that the church was built.
Jesus said in Mark 16:16, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Yet Luke tells us in Acts 2:47 that those who were being saved were added to the church. Paul promises the Ephesians (5:23) that Christ "is the saviour of the body" (the church). In no other institution on the face of the earth may men find salvation. Therefore in salvation is the church essential and it was for this purpose that the Lord brought the church into being.
Please note the nature of all the foregoing purposes of the church: (1) to provide an heavenly citizenship, (2) to provide a dwelling for God in the Spirit, (3) to provide a place for God's name on the earth, (4) to provide a realm wherein God is glorified, and (5) to provide salvation for men. In these, and many others that could be cited, it can be clearly seen that the church serves a spiritual purpose in its existence. The church satisfies men's primary needs. Without the church these needs would not be met, for the church is essential to the spiritual purposes for which the Lord built it. In no other realm is the church essential; therefore for no other purpose did the Lord build the church. Yet in the spiritual realm, the church is essential, for no other institution can do that which the church can and must do. Therefore it was for spiritual purposes that the Lord built the church.
We shall have learned a great and valuable lesson when we remove the church from the list of political, civic, humanitarian, business, recreational, educational, fraternal, social, and all other such institutions, and leave it in the realm where God placed it....a spiritual institution!
If God conceived and developed the church to serve a spiritual purpose, then all of its activities and tenets must bear on that purpose. Its organization is in view of its spiritual purpose; its work is in view of its spiritual purpose; and all else connected with the church is related to that for which the church was built.
Many are the pitfalls into which churches have fallen, simply because they lost sight of the purpose of the church. Corruption exists in the work being done by churches, the organization of churches, and all because men have removed the church from that noble and lofty purpose God designed it to serve and have lowered it to the level of a political, civic, social, etc., sort of an institution. Brethren, forget not that on that level it cannot accomplish its purposes. Let us pray that men may learn this before the judgment declares it is "too late."