The word “church” seems to be the problem….there are scriptural precedents that should give us parameters for what that word should means to us.
We know first of all that the “church” is not the building, but the congregation that meets in it.
When the congregation meets in it, what are they to do at such meetings? The first Christians met for scriptural instruction and to “incite to love and fine works” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
What does it mean to “incite” others? The word in Greek is “
paroxysmos” and it is used in the Christian scriptures only twice. It can mean…..
- an inciting, incitement or
- irritation (Strongs)
So an ‘incitement’ can be used in a good way or a bad way, such as “inciting a riot”. It is the motivation behind the action. People can be stirred up by the words of others, either to do good or to carry out evil (which some will assume is justice)
“The church” as an entity, if it does not have unity of belief and purpose is an absolute waste of time and energy. (1 Cor 1:10) Unless “the church” functions as a uniting factor in worship, what are we offering to God but something like the lame or sick sacrifices that he rejected in Israel?
Are humans so bent on what
they want to accept as truth, that they forget that God already provided it and demonstrated what it should look like in the ministry of Jesus and his apostles. There is our model.
Does “the church” today function as they did? The obvious answer is that the disunited bickering rabble that is Christendom, offers no sacrifices that are approved by God because they can’t even agree on who God is, and what his purpose is in our being placed on this carefully and lovingly prepared planet at the beginning.
The big picture is lost, and mankind are left fighting over a few dead pixels in one corner of it.
At this juncture, there are only “wheat and weeds” in this world…..”sheep and goats”…..and Jesus is due any time now to make his final separation….what will he find? And who will pass muster? (Matt 7:21-23) We are all either one or the other….not just collectively but individually…….we will have cast our lot in with whoever has made sense to us. But we have to ask ourselves what drew us to the camp we chose? Whose instruction are we really following?
How does the first century model fit the 21 st century reality? Who are following Christ and his apostles in their teachings and example……their emphasis on preaching…..and on meeting together regularly to stimulate and strengthen each other’s faith?
Whose truth are we promoting? And who is profiting from doing God’s work? Who is the one dressed in the garb of the “clergy” when there was no “clergy” (or priests) in the first century.
Who are teaching the traditions of men, rather than doing the work that Jesus assigned to all of his disciples? (Matt 28:19-20; Rev 22: 17)
Were they to sit in a building, with just one pastor, waiting for the people to wander in? Or were they instructed to go out to the people with his message of the Kingdom? (Matt 10:11-14; Matt 24:14)
There was always a body of elders to support the flock as
@Spyder has mentioned. No one was paid a salary because what they did was done voluntarily out of love for God, for Christ, and their brothers and sisters. They worked for their own keep. The only ones arguing against that are those who are paid clergy and those who have no idea what first century Christianity looked like.
How many people who identify as “Christians” can tell us what the Kingdom is and what it will accomplish?
Unfortunately the whole meaning of being a “Christian” is lost in a fog of adopted religious doctrines and worldly political ideologies and allegiances Those things divide the ones who claim Jesus as their “Lord”.
It was humans under the influence of the devil (the sower of the weeds) who carved up the Christ to serve themselves. Jesus knows those who are his own.