I am writing to push back against a trend that somehow
thinks the universal invisible Body of Christ is somehow more relevant and more
spiritually significant than the local visible Body of Christ. I am pushing
back against the notion that the organizational, institutional local visible
church is a creation of man and less worthy of honour. There are many places one could start but my own
corrective journey started in 1 Corinthians where we read:
“Do you
not know that youP are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit
dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s
temple is holy, and youP are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16–17, ESV)
Now in 1 Corinthians 6:19f, the Scriptures speak of our
bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, but in this text Paul is referring to the
local assembly in Corinth. The “you” in
vv16 and 17 are in the plural. Paul
addresses this local church (“To the church of God that is in Corinth . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:2a, ESV)) and
to this body of believers he refers to them as the temple of the Holy Spirit,
not a part of the temple. “Here Paul is not saying that each
individual Christian is a temple within which God’s Spirit dwells, but rather
that the Spirit of God dwells in the Christian community corporately as a community.”[1]
This does not dismiss the truth that each individual Christian has the
Spirit, nor does it minimize the reality that these corporate communities exist
all over the world (“To
the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called
to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:” (1 Corinthians 1:2, ESV)).
Gordon Fee comments:
“His
immediate concern is not to assert that the Spirit dwells in each of them, true
as that would be for him (6:19), but that the Spirit of God “dwells in your
midst” when they have assembled together for worship. That is, Paul is here
reflecting on the church as the corporate place of God’s dwelling, who, when
gathered in Jesus’ name, experienced the presence and power of the Lord Jesus
in their midst.”[2]
It is interesting to note that as Paul was dealing with
leadership issues, unity issues, and moral issues in the Church in Corinth and he
was compelled to remind them of the sanctity of their assembly. Their status as
a temple as they gathered together in parts of that city was such that dire
consequences would occur if they would cause any violence to it.
Just stop and think about it. “When does your “true,
universal, invisible” church ordain elders, and where does it ordain them? When
does your “true, invisible, universal” church appoint deacons, and where does
it appoint them? When does your true, invisible, universal” church authorize
the baptism of converts, and where does it do it? When does your “true,
invisible, universal” church observe the Lord’s Supper, and where does it observe
it? The Bible says that Christians should not forsake the assembling of
themselves together. Where does your “true, invisible, universal” church
assemble, and how often does it assemble? Which leads in public prayer? Who
takes the offering that has been laid aside as God has prospered?”[3]
Any dogma or philosophy that ignores the authority and
autonomy of the local church with only Christ as Her Head will end up in
error. That will be the topic of the
next article.
[1] Thiselton, A. C. (2000). The First Epistle
to the Corinthians: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 316).
Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
[2] Fee, G. D. (2014). The First Epistle
to the Corinthians. (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F. Bruce, G. D. Fee,
& J. B. Green, Eds.) (Revised Edition, p. 160). Grand Rapids, MI;
Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[3] https://www.tribune.org/the-new-testament-church-local-organized-visible-independent-and-complete/
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