How regaining God’s view of his Church can help us in our struggles with Church Life
What do you do when you find it difficult to be around your church family? When you find it difficult to foster relationships in church? Or if you just find church life a bit mundane? Perhaps you’re a new Christian, and when you look around your church, you find that it is full of people you have little in common with and you don’t know how to relate to them; or maybe you just feel like you never quite fit in any church, no matter where you go.
It can be hard to deal with these struggles, especially when you know that Church should be something good, a blessing and important in the Christian life. The struggle is real, I have been there; but thankfully scripture has something, actually, a lot to say about this. In our struggle, our view of the Church and church life can often be shaped by our feelings and experiences, but as Christians we should allow God’s perspective to shape and drive us.
So, I want to share three theological truths that the bible teaches about the Church that challenged me and I hope will challenge you as well in your struggles, and some practical implications.
- The Church is a display of the Wisdom of God
Ephesians tells us that the Church is a display of God’s wisdom, in Christ. There is a new humanity made up of people from all backgrounds and races that has now been reconciled together in Christ. So, we may look around our church and fell underwhelmed, but God gives us a heavenly perspective to change that.
“This grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 3:8-10
This perspective is that it was God’s plan, that through the multi-faceted church, his wisdom would be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This is a big deal – there is a presence of an invisible realm looking on, and the church is God’s own evidence to these spiritual forces, that their plots have failed and God’s eternal purposes have come to fruition in the Church. The Church is God’s victory parade as it were.
This spectacular cosmic view of the church will transform how we view our local churches. We might see an unspectacular group of people on a Sunday morning, people with whom we share little in common with and feel underwhelmed. But it is precisely in that unity of very different people, united by faith in Christ; that God is displaying his wisdom to the universe. So, we shouldn’t go just by what we see and feel but be reassured by faith and not by sight of what is really happening through our church by regaining this view, God’s view of his church.
2. The Church is a visible demonstration of Our Union with Christ
We need to be reminded of the implications of being united to Christ as believers. We need to be reminded that the Church was Jesus’ idea, not ours. It is Christ who said he would build his church and the gates of Hell would not prevail against it. But more than that, the church is the body of Christ, spiritually; this is a reality (Ephesians 4:1-16, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14).
Every believer is united to Christ and every believer is united in Christ, grafted together in him. This means that our attitude to the church, our attitude to our brothers and sisters in Christ reflects our attitude to Christ. How we treat his people is in effect how we treat Christ himself. So united is he with his people that when he meets Saul, on is way to persecute Christians Jesus says to him: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4-5)
The implications of this are put so well in a line from a Song by the Getty’s:
Beneath the cross of Jesus, his family is my own; Once strangers chasing selfish dreams, now one through grace alone. How could I now dishonour the ones that you have loved?
How then could we mock, disregard, ignore or dishonour those whom Christ has loved? What a challenge then to value and love our family in Christ, they have been purchased by Christ and they are precious to him.
3. The diversity of the Church reflects the diversity of the Triune God
The people in your church are not the same as you, of course they’re not. They come from various social and cultural backgrounds, they have different hobbies, they are different ages and personalities. But the diversity of your church in fact reflects the diversity of the God we worship, who is triune in nature, a unity in diversity.
So, let us not just put up with them because we must, but rather celebrate and rejoice in their diversity. Let us get to know them: where have they been? What’s their story? What have they learnt about Jesus? When you actually speak to people in your church family and find out more about them, being interested and invested in them, not only will you be encouraged by them, but you will likely encourage them too by being interested and invested in them.
So how can you practically live out the implications of this in a God centred way?
Firstly, be other person centred not self-centred
If everything is about you, then of course you will get frustrated when the people around you aren’t quite on the same wavelength as you, when they don’t have the same banter as you and aren’t meeting ‘your needs’. But the reality is that it’s not about you, you’re not the centre of the universe, Christ is and as a Christian, he calls you to be other person centre and not self-centred.
Your attitude to your church and church family should reflect the God whom you serve; A God who serves us at a great cost to himself. So rather than asking – “What can these people offer me?”, ask, “how can I serve these people?”; Ask – “How can I build these people up?”, “How can I serve?” Can you offer someone a lift to church? Cut their grass? Grab a coffee with them outside church? Help to babysit for that young mum to give her a break?
Secondly, intentionally seek spiritual growth with them.
Ephesians 4:1 exhorts us to live in a manner worthy of our calling, but the context is not just individual, but in the context of the Church collectively. We are to bear with one another and grow together in Christ. Here we are reminded once more that the Christian life is more than just you and Jesus, there is a corporate aspect to it; we are to help the body of Christ grow in Christ and be helped by the body of Christ to grow.
We were never meant to do Christianity on our own. So ask for help from your church, maybe hang out with some of the older Christians and learn from them. Read the bible together with them, pray for them regularly, pray with them, do mission together; encourage and exhort them and grow in Christ together with them.
And then finally, Pursue Christ
The reality is that church will be hard at times, it’s a bunch of sinners trying to love and serve each other and on this side of eternity, the struggle will be very much real. It is no surprise that the New Testament is full of instructions about how we are to love and serve each other because we need the reminders. But this is not done in our own strength; it is grounded in Christ who has given us the spirit, our helper. So meditate on Christ, who is Love by his very nature and embodies it, who freely gives of himself. Mediate on his word so that your heart is shaped and motivated by the love of Christ – A love that will love him and his people.
I hope this will be helpful to you as you seek to love your Church family. Love them all: love the difficult to love, the socially awkward, the young, the old, the ‘I have nothing in common with you’, the extrovert, the introvert and everyone in between. Start now with God’s help and here’s a thought – you are in one sense practising for eternity, which you will be spending with them.
I was greatly encouraged by one of my Cornhill lecturers on this topic in general as we unpacked Ephesians. You can find a glimpse of it here in a Conference exposition for bible teachers.
