One Building in Christ: The Purpose

Once again, all true believers are part of the “one building” in Christ. Not only have do we see the structure and result of this building, but we see a third principle in Ephesians 2:21—In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit—the purpose of this building. Yes, the structure has been built, and it is ever growing, but what is the ultimate purpose, the final goal of the process?

The Greek verb behind builded together (sunoikodomeo) means “to build in company with someone,” and the Greek for habitation (katoiketerion) pictures a dwelling place. Simply stated, the purpose of this joint building project is to form a dwelling place for God’s presence through the Spirit. What a thought!

Of all the churches to which Paul wrote, the church at Corinth had messed up the Church more than any other. Everything they touched, they perverted or misapplied. They are a classic example of what Paul is dealing with here in Ephesians, that the Universal Church, the Body of Christ, is to be a [dwelling place] of God through the Spirit. In turn, the Local Church was designed by God to be a reflec­tion of the Universal Church. Why? Because God want­ed to use a physical entity to minister to a physical world.

So, like the Universal Church, the Local Church which should manifest reverence and worship in the assem­bly. Yes, we most certainly can go too far by revering our stained glassed windows, genuflecting before the altar, and speaking in hushed, pious whispers. But many have gone too far the other way, having no reverence whatsoever when they meet for worship. I doubt that I will ever forget a Sunday morning in one church I was visiting a few years ago when more than once I heard the distinctive sound of a pop can being opened in the middle of the worship service. I was appalled that there could be so little reverence in the place of worship.

I have also observed in the last several years a direct correlation between reverence and entertainment in that the less reverence there is for the place of worship, the more entertainment oriented a church is. A. W. Tozer was conscious of where the church was headed decades ago. He wrote much about the decline of worship and reverence and the increase of entertainment. Here is just one comment:

Fiction, films, fun, frolic, religious entertainment, Hollywood ideals, big business techniques, and cheap, worldly philosophies now overrun the sanctuary. The grieved Holy Spirit broods over the chaos but no light breaks forth. ‘Revivals’ come without rousing the hostility of organized sin and pass without raising the moral level of the community or purifying the lives of professing Christians. Why?

Could it be that too many of God’s true children, and especially the preachers, are sinning against God by guilty silence? When those whose eyes are opened by the touch of Christ become vocal and active God may begin to fight again on the side of truth. I for one am waiting to hear the loud voices of the prophets and reformers sounding once more over a sluggish and drowsy church.

They’ll pay a price for their boldness, but the results will be worth it.

Tozer wrote that more than 40 years ago, but look where we are today. Where are the preachers who are standing up and thundering, “No, that kind of ministry is wrong, worldly, and wretched?” Instead, many have joined the ranks of Pragmatism and Relativism, and would rather please men instead of please God.

I merely submit this: we should treat the place of public worship as more than just an auditorium, for an auditorium can be anything from a lecture hall to a movie theatre. We should treat the place of public worship as what it is—an habitation of God through the Spirit. It grieves my heart when I don’t see reverence among God’s people, when it is more important to us that we are comfortable, entertained, and are having “our needs met” than it is that we have come humbly and reverently before a Holy God. Yes, the Holy Spirit does, indeed, dwell in us, but His being in us also means that He is with us in our public worship. If this thought does not promote reverence and worship, we are in a sad spiritual condition.