The Primacy of the Local Church

Back in Ephesians 4:11-12—And [Christ] gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ—the Apostle Paul lists the “office gifts” that God has given to equip individual believers so they can go out and do the work of building the Body both internally and externally. This leads us to the all-important question: Where is this equipping to take place? Where is the equipping of the saints to occur? Where do the office gifts operate? Can this equipping be done anywhere, by anyone, or by any organization? May we say plainly: This equipping of the saints is to be done in the Local Church. The men spoken of in verse 11 are in the Local Church, for the local church is the training ground for ministry.

Tragically, however, the Local Church is increasingly de-emphasized today, often being relegated to the past and accused of being “outdated,” “narrow,” “limited,” and “old fashioned.” Many advocate a freedom to “minister as they see fit,” without being “confined or shackled to any one church.” But we here submit that this is unscriptural. Why? The reason is, and please get this, God has created a physical entity to deal with a physical world. God chose to create something physical to deal with something physical. This in not because God is limited but because man is limited; God knew that He had to come down to our level with something physical.

To illustrate, I greatly appreciated reading about an incident told by pastor and prolific author Warren Wiersbe. He tells of a free-lance missionary who visited a pastor friend of his asking for financial support. He asked the missionary what group he was associated with. His answer was, “I belong to the invisible church.” The pastor then asked, “Well, what church are you a member of.” He again received the answer, “I belong to the invisible church!” By now the pastor was getting somewhat suspicious and asked, “When does this invisible church meet? Who pastors it?” The missionary became incensed and said, “Well, your church isn’t the true church. I belong to the invisible church.” The pastor’s response, which may we add was based on Biblical principle, “Well, here’s some invisible money to help you minister to the invisible church.” That incident again shows that there is a physical entity with which God is dealing with a physical world. In other words, the Universal Church ministers through the Local Church. Even a casual reading of the New Testament shows this to be the clear precedent.

How vital it is today that we recognized that the Local Church is the functioning organization of the Universal Church. In fact, the Universal Church (that Body of Christ of which all Christians are members) cannot even function properly without the Local Church, for the local church has been ordained of God to carry on earthly ministry. That is why the Apostle Paul founded local churches throughout the known world of his day. To deny the primacy of the Local Church is to deny the very foundation of New Testament ministry.

The Local Church is the training ground, training Christians to be witnesses of Christ. This truly is the beginning of what is commonly called “church outreach.” Dear Christian, you are the outreach. The Local Church has been ordained by God for this task of training Christians for ministry.

The Material for Building a Church (3)

Ephesians 4:15-16—But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love—provide us with three principles concerning the material we use for building a church. The first is the command to [speak] the truth, and the second is the control of speaking in love. Third, we see the three consequences.

(1) There will be individual growth in Believers. May grow up is one word in the Greek (auxano), which we first saw back in 2:21—“In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” As we saw there, it means “to grow or increase, of the growth of that which lives, naturally or spiritually.” While there it spoke of the entire Body of Christ as a living, growing entity, it speaks here of the individual Believer. This is proven by the verb tense (auxesomen), which is first person plural and, therefore, can be translated “we may grow up.” Into Him in all things, then, means that each of us is ever growing in Christ in every way, more and more growing in Christlikeness of character, progressively conforming to Him, Who is the sovereign and controlling Head.  

(2) There will be unity in the body of Christ. The literal idea behind the Greek fitly joined together (sunarmologeo, Eph. 2:21) is “together-joint-choose,” as the mason methodically fits each stone into the structure. Likewise, the building of the Church is an ongoing process in which each believer is being properly and uniquely cut and trimmed to be useful to the Building. Conversely, if each of us is not allowing God to work in us (2:10), then we will weaken or disfigure the building. Compacted, then, means “to join or knit together,” as each joint and ligament is controlled by the Head, which is Christ, and the power for unity is [supplied] by every joint. No part of the Body is idle; each every one is active in one measure, that is, to one extent, or another.

(3) There will be growth of the body (increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love). Just as the physical body grows of itself through food, the spiritual body of Christ grows and increases of itself through the nourishment of the Word of God. One commentator says it well: “[The body’s] various members are not in mere juxtaposition, like the several pieces of a marble statue. No portion is superfluous; none could be altered without positive injury . . . It is a mechanism in which all is so finely adjusted, that every part helps and is helped, strengthens and is strengthened, the invisible action of the pores being as indispensable as the mass of the brain and pulsations of the heart . . . While Joshua fought, Moses prayed. The snuffers and trays were as necessary as the magnificent lamp-stand. The rustic style of Amos the herdsman has it place in Scripture, as well as the polished paragraphs of the royal preacher. The widow’s mite was commended by Him who sate over against the treasury. Solomon built a temple. Joseph provided a tomb. Mary the mother gave birth to the child, and the other Maries wrapt the corpse in spices. Lydia entertained the apostle, and Phoebe carried an epistle.”

Further, what is the commodity that gives growth beauty?—love. Paul not only began his dissertation on unity with a focus on love (4:1-3) but he now ends the same way. May we never forget the grace of unity—love, the love of Christ for His Church and the love of believers for Him and one another. If we really love each other, we will work and get along as do the members of our physical body. 

The Material for Building a Church (2)

Ephesians 4:15-16—But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love—provide us with three principles concerning the material we use for building a church. The first is the command to [speak] the truth.

Second, lest our speaking be harsh, mean spirited, insensitive, or arrogant, Paul adds a principle that will control our speaking—love. No one in Corinth could have accused Paul of being unkind or unloving in his rebuke. Likewise, we are never to be rude, unkind, arrogant, or overbearing when we speak the truth. We are to always do it “in love.” A pastor must never “brow beat” God’s people; neither should any believer be arrogant, overbearing, or use “high pressure techniques” in personal witnessing. Our goal is to humbly and lovingly draw people to the Lord. Further, love is the balancing agent of conviction and courage. When the child of God has convictions and courageously stands on them, he will be called “closed minded,” “intolerant,” “hard-nosed,” and many other things. But when love is the balancing agent, people will take notice.

One commentator ably demonstrates the comparison of love and truth by pointing out that speaking the truth without love makes us ungracious, while speaking only love with no truth makes us unfaithful. “Raw truth” can alienate the very people we are trying to reach, while “uncontrolled love” can suppress the very truth we need to share.

A skilful physician, having to treat an abscess but finding the person to be afraid of lancing, privately wrapped up his knife in a sponge and then while gently smoothing the affected area, lanced it. Likewise, when we encounter an offender, we must not openly carry the dagger in our hand, but with words of sweetness administer our reproof, and so affect the cure.

May we understand that this love does not constitute some syrupy sentimentality that sets aside doctrine for the sake of unity. This is the common notion and practice in our day, when love is viewed as supreme over all else. But this is not what Paul is saying in this phrase or the context. Such a view makes a mockery of verse 14. This challenge from the great expositor Martyn Lloyd-Jones, preached several decades ago, should be heeded by every evangelical of our day: “To put life or ‘spirit,’ or niceness, or anything else, before truth is to deny essential New Testament teaching; and in addition is to contradict directly the Apostle’s solemn warning in verse 14. It is to set up ourselves, and the modern world, and the 20^th-century man, as the authority rather than the ‘called apostle’ Paul and all others whom the Lord has set in the Church to warn us against, and to save us from, this attitude which dislikes discrimination and judgment. Never was it more important to assert that friendliness or niceness or sentimental notions of brotherliness do not constitute Christianity. You can have all such qualities without and apart from Christianity, and even in men who deny it, but you cannot have Christianity without ‘truth.’ So that, whatever else it may mean, ‘holding the truth in love’ does not mean a vague, flabby, sentimental notion of niceness and fellowship and brotherhood.”

Later Lloyd-Jones touches on another matter that is very common in our day and is one of my own pet peeves about modern ministry: “Obviously we must know exactly what the truth is. We are not to spend the whole of our time arguing about preliminaries and presuppositions; we are to start with the revealed truth and expound it. Every one of us to understand, to believe, and the ‘hold the truth,’ not to speculate philosophically about life and its meaning and its problems. It is not for any preacher to stand in a pulpit and say, ‘I think this,’ or ‘I have come to this conclusion,’ but rather ‘Thus saith the Lord.’”

Oh, how true this is today! “Preaching” is filled with opinion and psycho-babble, but Truth is absent. May we never hesitate to speak the Truth, but may we never fail to speak it in love. To reverse the emphasis, may we always be loving, but may we never compromise the Truth.

The Material for Building a Church (1)

For quite some time now, we’ve been looking at Ephesians 4:7-16, where the Apostle Paul outlines God’s four-fold method for building and growing a Church. We’ve seen the first three principles: the Foundation (Leadership, vs. 7-11); the Approach (Discipleship, v. 12); the Purpose (Maturity vs. 13-14). This brings us to the fourth: the Instrument or Material for building, which is Truth: But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love (vs. 15-16).

A building is only as good as the materials used to construct it. There was a time, for example, that houses were wired with aluminum wire because of how much cheaper it was than copper. But because aluminum expands and contracts much more than copper, this gradually worked connections loose on switches and receptacles. So, because loose connections cause heat and heat causes fire, many houses were burning down. Eventually aluminum wire was outlawed for branch circuit wiring.

Perhaps you remember when two suspended walkways in the atrium of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed in 1981, resulting in the death of 114 people. It was caused not only by a serious error in the original design of the connections between the hanger rods and the main-carrying box beams of the walkways, but also a change in the hanger rod arrangement during construction, which doubled the load on the connections.

All this vividly illustrates that as engineering and building materials are crucial in a physical structure, they are even more critical in a spiritual one. Tragically, however, the trend in the Church today is poor engineering and inferior building materials. In fact, if we built our buildings the way we build churches, none of us would dare live in one because its collapse would be inevitable. Most churches are engineered according to the philosophies of Relativism and Pragmatism and the materials used to build are entertainment and emotional appeals to “felt-needs.”

In stark contrast, Paul declares that we must engineer and build God’s work based on one ingredient—TRUTH. Let us notice three principles: the command, the control, and the consequences.

First, the command concerning our building materials it to [speak] the truth. This is not optional, not just “one approach to ministry among many.” It is rather the single mandated method to building and maintaining a Church. We are to speak truth (aletheia), not opinion, conjecture, hypothesis, or theory, rather what is true, absolutely reliable, incontrovertible, irrefutable, incontestable, unarguable, and unchanging.

Beyond tragic is the fact that this is anything but the norm today. The vocabulary of much of the Church today is politically correct catch-phrases, sentimental expressions, and psycho-babble. Instead of confronting false teachers with their error, we embrace them with such schmaltziness as, “Our bother brings up an intriguing, thought-provoking point,” or “Our brother is entitled to his own ideas, to which we should be open.” No, we are supposed to speak the truth.

Once again, we see that true doctrine is essential in the face of “every wind of [false] doctrine” mentioned in verse 14. Speaking on the importance of doctrinal preaching, one writer comments: “If you take away the doctrine, you have taken away the backbone of the manhood of Christianity—its sinew, muscle, strength, and glory.” Wanted today are showy churches and glitzy ministries, but shunned is the preaching of Truth. Many Christian leaders think they know more than the inspired Apostle Paul and many great leaders in Church History who came after him. As a result we are already seeing the shipwrecks that are left behind. May we, indeed, [speak] the truth at all costs.

The Mandate of Discernment (2)

The discerning of Truth from error is not a minor concern in Scripture, but is, in fact, a recurring theme throughout. Continuing that thought, the Apostle Paul wrote the Thessalonians, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil” (I Thes. 5:21-22). “Prove” is  dokimazō, which means “test, pronounce good, establish by trial.” A related word, dokimos, was originally used as a technical term for coins that were genuine. So Paul is saying, “Examine everything, put everything to the test, verify each item to see if it is genuine or if it is a fake.” If it’s good, seize it and hold on to it. If it’s not, however, withdraw from it. A growing number in the Church today are constantly seeking something new, novel, and non-conforming. But what is desperately needed is not what is new, but what is true.

The Apostle John echoes Paul’s mandate to discernment by also using dokimazō: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (I Jn. 4:1, emphasis added). How much clearer could Scripture be? There are countless claims to spiritual authority today, innumerable assertions that “this is what the bible says,” but every single one of these is to be examined, tested, and verified.

Finally, Hebrews 4:12 is among the strongest New Testament statements about discernment: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The Greek for “discerner” is kritikos, which appears only here in the New Testament and which from Plato’s day onward referred to “a competent, experienced judge.” What a perfect description of the Word of God!—The Discerner, The Judge of men’s thoughts and even their intentions, ideas, notions, and purposes (Greek, ennoia).

Now, before we go on, we should also address one other verse that always arises with this issue, Matthew 7:1: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” This is used by most people to say, “See there, Jesus says we are not supposed to be critical of anyone; we should not criticize what they believe or say.” But is that what the verse says? Of course not. If it did, Paul contradicted the Lord Jesus many times. What such people fail to do is read the context (vs. 2-5), where Jesus clearly says that we are not to judge and discern hypocritically or judge someone’s motives and attitudes. We are all tempted to hold others to a higher standard than we hold ourselves, which is hypocrisy, so we must first make sure of our own life, make sure our standard is consistent, and then discern actions. In fact, that is exactly what Jesus says: “First, get the log out of your own eye and then you can remove the splinter that’s in your brother’s eye.”

Besides the texts we’ve examined, Scripture over, and over, and over again mandates discernment and warns of the dangers of false doctrine. Here are just a few I would encourage you to read: Matthew 7:15-16; 24:23-26; Acts 20:28-31; II Corinthians 11:3, 13-14; I Timothy 6:20-21; Philippians 3:2; Colossians 2:8; II Peter 2:1-2.

Never before has the Church been in such a need of discernment and pure doctrine as it is today. One of the best statements on place of doctrine in the Church was written back in 1983 by pastor and theologian Gordon Clark: “Today liberals, humanists, behaviorists, and the neo-orthodox attack doctrine; but what is worse, those who think of themselves as devout evangelicals strongly insisting on the inerrancy of Scripture, ignore doctrine. They favor pastoral counseling, they prate about four spiritual laws, sing Gospel dance tunes, testify to their happiness, even read some of the Bible, but they read it without trying to understand it. Nor is the major blame to be put on the congregation; most of whom know no Greek; the major blame lies on ministers who know no Greek and not much theology. They do not speak evil of God’s work: they simply do not speak. A friend of mine, who did his best to preach the whole counsel of God, had a conversation with a very popular preacher and author. Said the popular idol to my friend, “I believe the same doctrines you do.” Said my friend, “I am delighted, I wouldn’t have known it, if you hadn’t told me.”

Indeed, in many circles today, doctrine is avoided at all costs. What folly this is! Doctrine is the foundation on which we stand, and we must discern it carefully.

The Mandate of Discernment (1)

We’ve been examining the principle of discernment using several examples of popular teachings that simply are not supported in Scripture. All those examples (and believe me, a myriad of others we could list) demonstrate how completely undiscerning the Church has become. Now, we could understand this if the Bible only mentioned discernment once or twice, but the fact is that the discerning of Truth from error is a recurring theme throughout Scripture.

Consider when God asked Solomon what he wanted most, Solomon answered, “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?” (I Kings 3:9).

Most people are aware of the old adage, “Red sky in morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailor’s delight,” which is based on Matthew 16:2-3. The occasion was when the Pharisees tempted Jesus to perform a sign from heaven. He turned it around on them, however, and said, “O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” In other words, they could discern a simple natural phenomenon, but they had no spiritual discernment of Who Jesus really was. The Greek for “discern” is diakrino, one of several similar words that speak of judgment and discernment. It literally means “to make a distinction,” something the Pharisees could not do and something many Christians today will not do.

A graphic, and excellent, picture of discernment appears in Acts 17:11. After leaving Thessalonica because of much bitter treatment from Jews there, Paul and Silas headed for Berea, about forty-five miles away. Upon entering the synagogue, they found a group of new believers who “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” While many in Thessalonica had “received the word of God which [they] heard” (I Thes. 2:13), the Bereans were totally dedicated to the study of Scripture to see if what Paul said was true. That is discernment. What does the Scripture say (Rom. 4:3; Gal. 4:30)? That must be are credo, our motto, and our only discerner.

Paul also declared to the Corinthians (who were anything but mature, discerning, or spiritual), “He that is spiritual judgeth all things” (I Cor. 2:15). “Spiritual” (pneumatikos) means “non-carnal” or “dominated by the Spirit, in contrast to [the] natural.” To really be spiritual, then, means that we are characterized not by our natural instincts or opinions but by the Holy Spirit. This is why Paul further says that the spiritual person “judgeth all things.” Here is crucial principle. “Judgeth” is the same word translated “discerned” in the previous verse: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The Greek for “discerned” here is anakrino. From about 400 B.C onwards, it expressed “the questioning process which leads to a judgment: to examine, cross-examine, interrogate, enquire, and investigate. Other concepts in the word are scrutinize and sift.

So, to discern something means that we don’t say, “Well, as long as that Bible teacher talks about God or Jesus, then he’s okay.” True spirituality, maturity and discernment mean that we examine everything, that we investigate, question, scrutinize, and sift through every aspect of what is being taught and practiced, not from the perspective of the flesh, natural inclination, or personal opinion, but by the domination of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word. Most people are, like the Corinthians, anything but spiritual; they are, in fact, the very opposite, looking at everything from their perspective not God’s. The truly spiritual person does not accept everything that comes along; rather he or she first examines it Biblically to see if it’s right or wrong. 

The Key to Discernment (2)

Continuing our thoughts on how to Biblically discern Truth from error (Eph. 4:14), I want to mention one of the most dramatic examples in our day of how one book has managed to captivate Christianity in spite of the fact that its teaching is simply not Biblical. I know this might upset some readers, but I beg you not to react to but rather discern what you are about to read. Think Biblically.

The gullibility and undiscerning nature of Christianity today is no more apparent than in the virtual cult that has arisen around the hugely popular book The Prayer of Jabez. One author’s indictment of this book is right on the mark when he calls it “the most mesmerizing deception to be launched on American Christianity in the modern era” (Steve Hopkins, The Cult of Jabez [Bethal Press, 2002]). Why? Because the basic, underlying error of the book is, as another author writes, “that the repetition of a prayer, any prayer, even a Biblical prayer, unlocks the power of God in our lives” (Gary E. Gilley, “I Just Wanted More Land” —Jabez [Xulon Press, 2001] ). The whole thrust of the book is that by repeating this obscure Old Testament prayer (a clear violation of the prohibition of “vain repletion” in Matt. 6:8), the Christian can unlock blessing and miracles. But Scripture nowhere says any such a thing. All it boils down to be is old “prosperity teaching” in a new wrapper, and to be blunt, it’s heresy plain and simple. Over and over again (ad infinitum, ad nauseam) the author promises prosperity and miracles with such statements as the following.

(1) “God wants [us] to be ‘selfish’ in [our] prayers. To ask for more and more—and more again—from our Lord . . . [is] exactly the kind of request our Father longs to hear” (p. 19). But when we discern using Scripture alone, we find that Scripture nowhere says any of that. Not one place does God’s Word say that He wants us to be selfish in our prayers—NOT ONE.

(2) “A guaranteed by-product” of saying the Jabez prayer will be that “your life will become marked by miracles” (pp. 24-25). But again, that is not promised either in the so-called “Jabez Prayer” (I Chronicles 4:9-10) or anywhere else in Scripture.

(3) “Seeking God’s blessing is our ultimate act of worship” (p. 49). But once again, not one verse of Scripture says that; it is totally the author’s conjecture.

And on we could go. Like so many contemporary writers, that author came to the Bible with his own preconceived philosophy and tried to support it with Scripture. While the book is filled with warm anecdotes, personal experience, and boundless conjecture, totally absent are solid theology, Scripture exposition, and Divine Truth.

If I may say again, my desire is not to offend anyone, rather to defend the Word of God. And the only way to defend Scripture is by discerning Truth from error. If we honestly examine the situation today, we discover that Truth says, “Go ahead and examine me; I can take it,” while Tolerance says, “Leave me alone; I’ll believe what I want to believe.” The truly mature Christian is one who discerns Truth—plain and simple. He or she will be willing to examine everything according to the Word of God.

Now, is that my opinion? Most certainly not. In out next installment, in fact, we’ll see that discernment is everywhere mandated in Scripture.