Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that observes that those who fail to learn from history are condemned to drag the rest of us right back through it, kicking and screaming.
Quick piece of good news. My landmark book on the kingdom of God, INSURGENCE: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, is only 1.99 in digital for a limited time: Kindle, Nook, eBook, etc. You can thank Baker, my publisher, for this incredible deal.
So I saw a meme the other day that many people liked. The meme read:
I heard someone say, “I don’t go to church. I study the Bible at home by myself.” That statement proves you don’t study the Bible.
(End of meme.)
Well, I agree with the sentiment that church is important (IF one understands what the New Testament means by the word). But the response in the meme – “You don’t study the Bible if you don’t go to church” – is tremendously flawed.
That statement PRESUMES that “church” is two hours on Sunday where you attend a religious service and you’re mostly passive – listening to a sermon and singing along with the worship team.
That’s NOT what church was in the New Testament or the first century.
In other words, people didn’t “go to church” during the New Testament era. The church was a close-knit community that gathered regularly.
They didn’t go to what they collectively were. (Also, the common statement that “I am the church” is also wrong. The church/ekklesia is a corporate community. An individual is not and can never be the body of Christ.)
The New Testament is crystal clear that church, the ekklesia, was a local shared-life community where mutual exhortation took place regularly.
The members of the body of Christ in a given locale did life together.
Consequently, for the first followers of Jesus, “church” wasn’t a religious service. Therefore, you didn’t “go to church.” You gathered (or assembled) as the church, the body of Jesus Christ.
And during those gatherings, there was mutual participation and sharing (1 Corinthians 14, Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 10 make this plain).
(A ministry meeting is something different as I’ve explained elsewhere. But its purpose was to equip a local assembly to gather under the headship of Christ and express Him together in their lives and in their gatherings.)
In summary, the person who created the above meme doesn’t understand the Bible where church is concerned. They’ve read our 21st century practices back into the New Testament.
One cure for this disease is understanding what the New Testament actually says in its chronological, historical, and contextual setting.
This is where my new book, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: Revised and Expanded, comes in.
The book is causing a revolution in how countless Christians understand the New Testament epistles, all 21 of them.
At the same time, it’s giving God’s people a fresh look at what church is in the mind and heart of God. (Oh, and it’s NOT “house church.” It’s something far more wonderful.)
If you’re reading the book, you already know that.
Next Thursday I plan to talk about being “woke,” but in a way you’ve never heard.
Remember to grab your copy of Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom in digital while the discount lasts – less than 2 dollars. Thanks Baker!
Talk soon.
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