IS OFFICIAL/FORMAL CHURCH MEMBERSHIP IN A LOCAL CHURCH ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE? – PART 3
Part 3 (there are 4 parts) continues to look at various scriptures in this study of formal church membership over and above the one membership that unites all believers into one Body, and makes them all members one of another.
The purpose of this study is to open up the scriptures to show what I believe is a position against a formal/official local church membership that discriminates against those who don’t want to take that step. I challenge the notion put by some that this is all about lack of commitment, and I think it is wicked to say that those who don’t submit themselves to a church membership are not committed Christians. It is a wicked thing to say.
LOOKING AT A LOT OF SCRIPTURES
[A]. ONE PASSAGE FROM CORINTHIANS:
{{1 Corinthians 12:26 And IF ONE MEMBER SUFFERS, ALL THE MEMBERS SUFFER WITH IT; IF ONE MEMBER IS HONOURED, ALL THE MEMBERS REJOICE WITH IT.
1 Corinthians 12:27 NOW YOU ARE CHRIST’S BODY, AND INDIVIDUALLY MEMBERS OF IT.
1 Corinthians 12:28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.”}}
The text here (verse 26) continues the theme raised in the last paragraph of the last message which is the commonality of membership, one with another as the ONLY membership known in a local church. Paul knew of no special official membership in a local church. All his letters don’t even hint at it. Paul frames the language in a way that can only be understood as fellow Christians together = I Corinthians 12:27. There is nothing in this passage or in any other passage hinting at some exclusive individual membership ritual in a local church, over and above what the New Testament provides, but indeed, he emphasises the fact that we are individually members of Christ’s body.
I won’t be touching the teaching in verse 28 except to say that it excludes a pastor or minister or reverend in control as in a one man ministry. That notion carried on from the Roman Catholic Church and was never properly addressed by the Reformers but they kept the ideas of “priest” in charge of each church. God’s way is a plurality of teachers and spiritual eldership and you can’t deny it from these verses. Let’s be honest about this. I know there can be exceptions such as a leading teaching pastor in a situation where the church folk are very young in the faith.
For what it is worth, I think the reason why there is so much sectarianism apart from serious doctrinal differences is that this notion of, I am a MEMBER of this church and you are a MEMBER of that church, separates. We are dividing the Body of true believers. It ought not to be.
As I pen this, it is exactly one week after Resurrection Sunday at Easter. I have returned from an Easter Convention (a Keswick one) where we began with over 300 souls at the first meeting. These people come from a variety of churches up to 500 km away for the whole weekend. We all had fellowship as members of the ONE body with no issue with local church membership. It was not even remotely important. That is what it means to be members one of another.
[B]. ONE PASSAGE FROM EPHESIANS:
{{Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:14 FOR HE HIMSELF IS OUR PEACE, WHO MADE BOTH GROUPS INTO ONE, AND BROKE DOWN THE BARRIER OF THE DIVIDING WALL,
EPHESIANS 2:15 BY ABOLISHING IN HIS FLESH THE ENMITY, WHICH IS THE LAW OF COMMANDMENTS CONTAINED IN ORDINANCES, THAT IN HIMSELF HE MIGHT MAKE THE TWO INTO ONE NEW MAN, THUS ESTABLISHING PEACE,
Ephesians 2:16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.”}}
This most interesting passage talks of the reconciliation work of the Lord Jesus who destroyed the wall of sin that divided us from God, whether they be Jews who tried to keep the Law of commandments or Gentiles who were afar off. He then speaks of our reconciliation into one body, the fact of one body, and all members in it, being a strong point with Paul. Need I say it again, there are only two memberships and both are eternal – the membership of His Body and members of one another.
It is the hired servant that wants to formalise the sheep with official membership whereas the Good Shepherd knows His own sheep by name and all in His flock are on an equal basis as sheep in the Shepherd’s care. The sheep were not asked to sign some pastoral agreement to become official members of the Lord’s Flock (of which a local church is a tiny replica of the Flock), but were placed in His Flock (and flock) by the Lord Himself, all to be equal members in that flock.
All who met at Ephesus in that fellowship were members of Christ who met together there. There was no division into “crew and passengers” we mentioned in the first message. They were all there on a common equal basis – saints at Ephesus - and to ask any to sign a membership agreement that gave the person voting rights over those who did not sign, and rights to Church Business Meetings – that is utterly foreign in the New Testament.
All those who met at Thessalonica did so because they were saved through the gospel, and had fellowship with other believers there and that is what comprised the local church – the believers who met there. Man wants to impose a condition on membership more than the simple meeting of believers, not even hinted at in the New Testament. It is not the Lord’s way and a study of the shepherd and sheep in a flock would underline that.
I have seen gifted people (gifts from God) in a couple of fellowships, believers who questioned official membership, and had a conscience about it, and who could not be considered for ministry at the church, because they were not in the inner circle with their names entered into the Membership Roll. Now you tell me, would that have happened at Corinth or Ephesus or Thessalonica?
Unity, equality and care are major elements in Christ’s body both universal and local. Never, never destroy that unity with what is instituted by man because that will always cause division which is proof the matter is wrong! So why have it, and why do it?
[C]. ONE MORE PASSAGE FROM EPHESIANS -
{{Ephesians 2:19 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, BUT YOU ARE FELLOW CITIZENS WITH THE SAINTS, AND ARE OF GOD’S HOUSEHOLD,
Ephesians 2:20 having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,
Ephesians 2:21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord;
Ephesians 2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”}}
This is another crucial passage for it uses language that opposes official man-instituted membership. All Christians are fellow citizens with the saints! We all have identical status and position and equality in God’s Household (Body, Church, Bride, Building, Temple), members one of another. Each local church is small representation of God’s Household. It is fashioned on the same principle where the people in a local church are all fellow citizens, and that is the end of the story.
How dare man try to separate God’s flock locally, into crew and passengers, or to attribute to some more privileges than to others when God over and over again speaks so clearly on this matter. How dare man bring division or impose rules and regulations on the sheep of God’s fold, similar, in a broad sense, to what the Judaisers were doing to the saints in Galatia.
Fellow citizens, fellow members – it is our birthright, and purchased for us by the blood of Christ to stand equally before Him, not only in the matter of redemption and security, but also in the matter of our interaction with one another as fellow citizens of a local church. Once man imposes a rule that would divide the standing of Christians, he is doing the work of the Devil for the diabolical work is to divide the saints of God and cause division and two-tier structures, even more too.
I can’t emphasise enough in all these passages of scripture that the local church/assembly is a copy of the Universal Church/Assembly which is the Body of Christ, and that what the universal church contains, so too the local church contains. Those who are in the Universal Church are ALL equal in the Lord. There is not part of the Body that has extra rights and status than others. That would be unthinkable from the Lord who called all us brothers and friends. If the Lord does not use this divisive action; why does man do it in churches?
[D]. ONE MORE EPHESIAN PASSAGE – JEW AND GENTILE
{{Ephesians 3:5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
Ephesians 3:6 to be specific, that THE GENTILES ARE FELLOW HEIRS AND FELLOW MEMBERS OF THE BODY, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,”}}
In regard to believers, what is the difference between Jew and Gentile in the Lord’s Church/Body? In that Body who has more privileges, Jew or Gentile? The answer is self-evident. All are equal with no inequality and no requirement that in heaven we sign up for Membership in a different area over and above what “the others” have.
God has made us fellow heirs and fellow members and fellow partakers and that most certainly is in the Body of Christ, His own Bride, but the fact remains that what we are in Christ’s Body determines the same set of conditions that must operate in His local bodies, in the churches and assemblies of His people, for there is something horribly wrong if God has separate standards.
Fellow heirs and fellow members and fellow partakers can not possibly allow for a membership that is exclusive and divides into “crew and passengers” as one proponent of this devilish scheme describes it. That was in a Baptist church for in my State, the Baptist hierarchy is quite forceful with official membership. I personally find it the saddest thing when a so-called Christian can not appreciate the reality and the intimacy of the Body of Christ and wants to divide it up. What sort of Christian ministers and teachers are being set loose into God’s heritage these days?
[E]. MORE STILL IN EPHESIANS -
{{Ephesians 4:3 BEING DILIGENT TO PRESERVE THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE.
Ephesians 4:4 THERE IS ONE BODY AND ONE SPIRIT, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
Ephesians 4:5 ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM,
Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”}}
This is the passage of the seven unities, all precious in their application to the individual believer. The significant thing again, is the unity of the one Body and the one Spirit, and we have seen that it is the Spirit of God that baptises us into the one Body to make us members each of the other because initially we have been baptised into Christ. That is sufficient. Any other plan of man to enforce or contrive another membership on God’s people that contains conditions is wrong and disgraces the work of the Holy Spirit, I feel.
What I do find most important is that this passage begins with verse 3 that tells us most clearly that we are to be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit made us members of one another because we were firstly made members of the Body of Christ through the baptism of the Spirit, and to conjecture another membership is not preserving the unity of the Spirit and it is not done in the bond of peace.
Yes, I am aware of some places where the membership in an official capacity seems to operate well enough, but because it is not God’s requirement, but man’s, then it has the capacity to cause trouble, and it can. Why should we make this conflict when it is not necessary?
I know over many years where membership has caused strife in fellowships and where those of conscience who have not submitted to this ritual and ordinance of man, have been hurt and left feeling like second class citizens even though their walk with the Lord was a good and humble one. I say very clearly that those who demand the addition of a church membership over and above the two memberships the Spirit has provided (The Body of Christ and the local churches), are not diligent in preserving the unity of the Holy Spirit but are trying to supercede His work.
I know the arguments given for such a practice by those who advocate for it, and I want to address these later on. Remember, not one hint in any New Testament passage supports this “becoming a member officially” of a local church.
[F]. CONTINUING WITH ANOTHER EPHESIAN PASSAGE
{{Ephesians 4:11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
Ephesians 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
Ephesians 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;}}
God has distributed the gifts in His Body and I believe these to be both corporate and local; in other words there are evangelists who minister on the world stage for the Body, and those with the gift of evangelism who operate in a local church – if they are given that opportunity because too often, a few of today’s ministers believe the pulpit is their divine right alone and lord it over God’s heritage and will not allow the exercise of the gifts the local church saints have been given; or given, but need development. Without this, the local church does not grow in its abilities and development of all the necessary gifts God has given for the equipping of the saints for what follows – the work of service and the building up of the body of Christ.
I think it is because the church minister/pastor is paid through the offerings of the people at the church, then the minister is not often willing to share the pulpit in training for younger men, to allow them to minister and develop. He sees it as his justification for the payment he receives, and has to be about doing himself to prove worthy of his stipend/salary. This is not always the case, but often is.
In Ephesians, as in every one of the New Testament books, there is not a hint of any requirement for some official church membership; nothing is mentioned or commanded, and when it operates in those churches that demand that, it can become an overbearing attitude and a class system. I HAVE SEEN THAT, so it is no use deriding me. It is arrogance. In fact it split the church. I know it is not always the case, but I saw a nastiness in a church over it. It was all unnecessary because it became the strong purpose of the church (pastor) to push official membership because the denomination got “per capita” fees paid to the Union on membership; hence, the move for membership for the funds. But what about the gospel? ? ? ?
