By Lyndon Marcotte, Contemplative Corner
Matthew 28:16-20
We’ve been talking throughout the month about what it means to be the Church. At its most basic level, what does it mean to be the Church? It’s easy to be caught up in trends and cultural definitions of what the Church is, but what does the Bible say?
We’ve identified dynamics that are characteristic of a Simple Church: Upward, Inward, Outward, and Forward. The images and names used in the New Testament give us insights into how these four dynamics work in the Church:
We grow Upward, as a House of Prayer. We grow Inward, as the Family of God. We grow Outward, as the Body of Christ. We go Forward, as the Bride of Christ.
The first three must be present in order for the church to go forward into growth and maturity. We’re not talking about just growing in numbers. Any organization can do that, but we grow in spiritual maturity together as a Church when we grow Upward in our relationship to God, when we grow Inward in our relationship to one another, and when we grow Outward in our relationship to our community. When we do all three, we experience spiritual maturity that enables us to go Forward to be a Church that God uses for His glory to make an impact on the lives of others.
The term the Bride of Christ isn’t used directly in the New Testament to describe the Church, but it is implied in several texts: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready,” Rev.19:7. The Gospels also refer to Jesus as the Bridge groom, implying he has a bride, and in Ephesians Paul compares the union of husband and wife to Christ and the Church.
I think the Bride of Christ is the image that is most personal and most descriptive of the Church fulfilling the potential of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. All the preparations have been made, everything is in place to go forward into a deeper walk with Christ and experience the fullness of that relationship in the world.
I personally think that some weddings go overboard with pomp and circumstance, but you need a certain measure of decorum to signify what the importance of the occasion. I mean, if the bride showed up late for the wedding and came dragging down the aisle in sweatpants & a t-shirt like she just rolled out of bed, then got to the altar and said, “can we hurry up? I’m hungry and the game’s about to come on,” I think most grooms would be right to assume, “you know, I’m not sure, but I don’t think she’s really serious about this.”
Jesus told Peter, “if you love me, feed My sheep.” If you really love me, love My people. John tells us in 1 John, if you really love God, then love one another. We know from the New Testament that we can’t be selective in who we love and how much we love them. If we are serious about God and being followers of Christ, this is what it looks like.
Over the years, I’ve heard people make critical comments about churches and preachers, “All he ever preaches about is love, love, love… love God, love everybody. Let’s all just love…” as though that were a bad thing, as if there were any other message. If we could just get that one, we wouldn’t need any others. That’s exactly what Jesus said when they asked him, “What’s the most important commandment?” He said all the law and the prophets hang on these two: Love God, Love one another. That’s it. There is no other message.
It’s easy to look down your nose at someone else and judge them. It’s easy to talk about sin and end times, and make ourselves look better than all those ignorant sinners out there. It’s quite another thing to look in the mirror and see ourselves as we are and to see one another as we are, warts and all, and choose to love each other anyway. Jesus didn’t live and die on the cross, so we could tell everyone how horrible they are and how God wants to roast them in hell forever, unless they believe like us, dress like us, act like us, worship like us… We’re NOT the insiders who have the inside track on eternal salvation. On our best day, we are beggars telling other beggars where we found bread. Jesus died to show us this is what love looks like. This is the message. That you don’t fight ignorance with arguments. You don’t overcome violence with violence. You don’t fix loneliness and heartache with orthodoxy. Love doesn’t come with limits. If it has limits, it’s not really love. This is what love looks like… “Greater love has no man than this, that you lay down your life for another.”
The goal for a New Testament Church isn’t to be big and have lots of people, lots of money, and lots of activity. That’s not what it’s about. The goal, the purpose of the Church, is to love God, love one another, love your community, and grow in grace with God and one another. When your heart is in the right place and your priorities are lined up with God’s plan, as found in scripture, spiritual growth and maturity are sure to follow.
The hard lesson that I had to learn over the years in the church is that a lot of people in the church aren’t really interested in spiritual maturity. They just like to see most of the pews and offering plates filled.
A lot of people aren’t really interested in reaching their community. They’re just interested in having a good reputation in the community.
A lot of people aren’t interested in loving one another and being church to one another. They just want people to think good things about them and stay out of their business.
A lot of people aren’t really interested in knowing God and growing closer to Him. They just want to be entertained and have some measure of peace that they’ll go to some celestial palace when they die.
I’m not being mean. I’m being honest, and not only have I met those kinds of people in the church, from time to time, I’ve been those kinds of people. My heart hasn’t always been in the right place, all the time. Believe it or not, from time to time, I’ve liked to think that it was all about me. There have been times when I wasn’t all that concerned with spiritual maturity, and growing closer to God and others. It’s not that we have ill intentions. Most of the time we’re just busy or distracted with bills, jobs, family, health, etc. that we lose our focus and take our eyes off the prize. For some of us those moments may last a few hours, a few days, a few months, or longer, but we need to be reminded. We need to re-commit to the purpose and plan that God has for us and for His church.
This is a picture of the potential that we have in Christ. It’s a picture of who Jesus knew the Church could be. It’s up to us to decide if we’ll live up to that potential. Are we going to be the person, the people, and the Church that honors God, loves one another, and loves the community and the world that God placed us in? Are we just going to make this all about us? We need to make that choice today… and tomorrow… and the next day…