In the upcoming meditations we
want to reflect on the question: is the full armour of God of which Paul talks in
Ephesians 6:10-17 only meant to protect individual Christians against Satan’s
assaults or does it equally aim at protecting the entire local Body of Christ?
Before we start these
investigations, we need to ask ourselves three preliminary questions:
FIRST PRELIMINARY QUESTION:
“SHOULD WE AIM FOR THE PERFECT
CHURCH?”
Time and again there have been movements
in worldwide Christianity that have aimed at Christian perfection. They have aspired
to “attain a state of holiness in which
believers are made free from original sin,
or depravity, and where there is a total love for God and others wrought
by the infilling of the Holy Spirit.”
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian perfection)
Obviously, these movements give
rise to questions like: is it possible to live a life without sin? Does God’s
Word even demand Christians to live a perfect life? Can churches reach a perfect
state of perfect being?
The general response of renowned
Bible teachers over the centuries has always been that this is not attainable and that it is even unbiblical.
The
apostle John writes in his first letter: “If we claim to be without sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9**).
SECOND PRELIMINARY QUESTION:
“IS JESUS’ LIFE PRESENT IN OUR
CHURCHES?”
That
is a question that God’s Word answers in the affirmative! The evening before
Jesus dies, He promises His followers that He soon will come and live in them
through His Spirit. He says: “If you love Me, you will obey what I command. And
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counsellor to be with you
for ever -- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it
neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and
will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before
long, the world will not see Me any more, but you will see Me. Because I live,
you also will live. On that day you will realise that I am in My Father, and
you are in Me, and I am in you. Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is
the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too
will love him and show Myself to him. ..... If anyone loves Me, he will obey My
teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home
with him.” (John 14:15-23**)
Jesus
lives by His Spirit in the hearts of His followers. They are members of His church
and together form one body, called the ‘Body of Christ’ or the ‘Body of the
Messiah’. Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth (Greece): “The human body
has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body. So it is with the
Body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles (i.e. non-Jews), some
are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ's Body
by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians
12:12-13*).
The
apostle Paul also calls the church ‘the Temple of God’. He writes to the
followers of Jesus in Corinth: “We are the temple of the living God. As God
said: ‘I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they
will be my people’” (2 Corinthians 6:16*).
Furthermore, he writes to the
Christians in Ephesus (Turkey): “We who believe are carefully joined together,
becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through Him you Gentiles (i.e. Christians
from the nations) are also joined together as part of this dwelling where God
lives by His Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:21-22*).
Finally, the apostle Peter says to
his fellow believers: “God is building you, as living stones, into His
spiritual temple.” (1 Peter 2:5*)
As we have said in Meditation
131, we see again in these verses that for God the church is more than a
gathering of individual Jesus’ followers. The church is the ’Body of Christ’ of
which each Christian is a member. The church is the ‘Temple of God’ of which
each believer is a living stone. Today we could say: the church is a ‘corporate
personality’ in which Jesus lives by His Spirit.
THIRD PRELIMINARY QUESTION:
“HOW DOES JESUS’ LIFE MANIFEST
ITSELF IN OUR CHURCHES?”
God’s
Word tells us how Jesus’ life is present in His reborn children and therefore
in His church. The apostle Paul writes to the followers of Jesus in Rome: “...
God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has
given us” (Romans 5:5**).
Furthermore,
Paul writes to the church in Ephesus: “I pray that from His
glorious, unlimited resources He will give you mighty inner strength through His
Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your
hearts as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's
marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people
should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is. May you
experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully
understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that
comes from God” (Ephesians 3:16-19*).
Finally, we need to mention again
what Paul writes to the church in Ephesus: “We
will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like
Christ, who is the head of His body, the church. Under His direction, the whole
body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it
helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and
full of love” (Ephesians 4:15-16*).
From
these three Bible texts and many others, we know that Jesus wants to manifest His
life in our churches through our passionate love for God and for each other. It
is God’s Spirit who is well able to produce this Christlike love in our hearts
and in our congregations.
Obviously, the biblical answers to these
three introductory questions do not solve all the problems within our churches.
Not by a long chalk! Yet, I think that
they help us reflect biblically on the topic of the upcoming meditations: how do we protect Jesus' life within our churches against Satan's attacks?
So,
hang on till the next meditation!
Translations: * New Living
Translation; ** New International Version.
About
“Who is Jesus?”, see Meditations 1-17.
About
“How do I receive forgiveness of my sin(s) and salvation?, see Meditations 18-26.
About
“Who is the Holy Spirit and what is His ministry?”, see Meditations 27-33.
About
“How does God want me to live as a follower of Jesus?”, see Meditations 34-37.
About "God's major project: Transforming me and my church into the likeness of Christ", see Meditations 44-48.
About
“Personal, Christlike love for God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ”, see Meditations 56-62.
About
“Corporate, Christlike love for God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ”, see Meditations 63-99.
About “The Church as a
‘Corporate Personality’, see Meditation 63-65.
About “The Church as a
new (Messianic) community, consisting of all the followers of Jesus”, see Meditation
29.
About “The two Tracks of Maturing in Christlikeness”, see Meditation 100.
About “The two Tracks of Maturing in Christlikeness”, see Meditation 100.
About “How to overcome the power of sin in my life?”, see Meditations 101-119.
About “How do I protect Jesus’ life within me against Satan’s attacks?”,
see Meditations 120-132.
