If you are in Christ, then, put simply, the church is now part of your story, because it is part of his. Perhaps even more startlingly, the church is part of your story because you are the church. If you are joined to Christ, that truth is inescapable. This is clearly shown in 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul points out that Christians are as intricately connected to one another and to Christ as the parts of the human body. This spiritual reality occurred in our lives when we received Christ’s forgiveness and were baptised by the one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). We are now the church: his very body, of which he is the head.
Paul further emphasised the spiritual reality of the church in his letter to the Ephesians. He told them that the Spirit which indwelt each of them was building Jew and Gentile, together, into a temple in which God himself dwells (Eph. 2:19-22). If ever two people groups had an objection to nearness and fellowship with one another, it was the Jews and Gentiles! And yet this is the miracle: the Spirit was, and is, working through the church, bringing disparate and undeserving people from diametrically opposed backgrounds together in unity. The church is a people bound together by the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus alone. The focal point of the church is not the building or the institution; it is the people, saved and indwelt by Christ himself. A people of every tribe and tongue and nation, worshipping Christ together, in Spirit and truth (Rev. 7:9).
In several of Paul’s letters, he reminds the Christians of the indescribable truth of their new identity, individually and collectively. Then he exhorts them to live up to these truths. He encourages them to live out the truth so that the truth is lived out among them. The fact that these exhortations have to be given acknowledges that there is a gap and a way to go to truly live in the light of the believers’ new identity as the church. In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about this gap being closed as the believers grow up into the fullness of its Head, as they become mature (Eph. 4:13).
Whilst we rejoice in the beauty and fullness of what the church is, we also hold this together with a patience that recognises that we, the church, are on a journey. We are not there yet, but as with any healthy church, we are, by the Spirit’s might, growing in our love towards God and others. We are maturing. Over time, the Spirit is enabling us to fulfil more of the ‘one anothers’ in Scripture, and increasingly the light of Christ is shining through us to one another, and our hurting and broken world. Love abounds more and more.
Love and sacrifice seen through the church
It is only the power of the gospel, the Holy Spirit himself, that will shape churches as communities where mutual love and sacrifice happen. We see the pattern in Jesus’ life: death followed by resurrection; where one person sacrifices, another is brought life. When one gives their time to prepare tea and coffee, another is brought physical life through the nourishment. When one gives their listening ears and heartfelt prayers, another is comforted. When one visits an elderly person suffering from loneliness, another is brought joy and hope. When one cooks a meal for another, the other is ushered out of aloneness into presence.
These are all gospel stories: one person’s willing sacrifice granting life to another. They are present-day stories that point to the greater story that our lives are part of and shaped by. When we are part of communities where the Holy Spirit is working, we will get to experience something of Christ’s love in tangible ways. We will be undeservedly blessed. While we will hopefully receive love, we are also called to give it, as we follow Christ together. As we die to self, we give the Spirit more room to move in and through our hearts. In time, we begin to look more like Jesus, because we are more often being led by the Spirit of Jesus.
When church is hard
Many people get put off diving deep into church because it is messy, or they have been hurt. Jesus never said that following him would be easy. Do you remember his story? In coming into this world for you and me, Jesus was hurt by sinners. He was hurt by us. Yet, in and through this, God worked a miracle of life. In and through the mess, God told the greatest love story ever imagined. The purpose of the church is love, because the church belongs to, and is sustained by, the One who is love himself.
There will be some whose experience of church has been far from loving, and that is hard. However, even in the hurt, God has a way of redeeming his plan and making his purposes come good. For in the greatest love story ever told, love didn’t always appear warm and fluffy. Love himself, Christ, endured the betrayal of a friend, the abandonment of his closest followers, the isolation of loneliness, and the misunderstanding of his family. Even if we experience these hurts in the church, in experiencing the absolute messiness of sinful people, we come to know much more deeply the kind of enduring, sacrificial and painful love with which we, messed-up sinners, have first been loved. In that way, we too know something more of the depths of Christ’s love for us.
Do you want to know more of Christ’s love and have his love story written out in your life? Go, live out the church!
