Many Christians tend to view their Christianity as a personal relationship with God and not much else. They generally know that this “personal relationship” has some implications for how they should live. But I’m concerned that many Christians don’t realize how this most important relationship with God necessitates a number of secondary personal relationships—the relationships that Christ establishes between us and his body, the Church.
God doesn’t mean for these to be relationships that we pick and choose at our whim among the many Christians “out there.” He means to establish us in relationship with an actual flesh-and-blood body of people.
Numbers 1:1-2 English Standard Version (ESV) – A Census of Israel’s Warriors
“1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head”
Christians are deciding they do not need to join anyone’s church to please God.
Can we talk about that?
A lot of churches are trying to build their ministries on “common law” [regular worshipers with church, but never actually join and became members]. These people attend, profess a love for Jesus, and say they believe His word, but they make no commitment to the body of believers and put themselves under the authority of no leaders. They are free to come and go without being accountable to anyone.
The people love it because they are not committing themselves to anything. Nothing about this is good for the kingdom of God.
A quick Bible study, then let’s get to the question, “What’s the point of joining a church?”
Notice the command in Numbers 1:1, “to take a census …”
According to Numbers 1:3, this was to find out how many people could be counted on in case of trouble (“go out to war in Israel”).
God’s people had recently settled into the Promised Land. On every side, hostile nations were angry at the intruders and itching for a reason to go to war against Israel. The tiny nation needed to know who could be counted on.
Do not miss that. This also happens to be a major point concerning church membership. It’s important to know who can be counted on.
And for good reason, because …
Others lived in their midst who were not on the team. Aliens, even.
Two groups of foreigners had mixed and mingled—and sometimes intermarried—with the Israelites. First came the hangers-on, called the “mixed multitude” in Exodus 12:38 and “the rabble” in Numbers 11:4. These former slaves had joined the Exodus under Moses to escape Egypt. They had endured the wilderness wanderings and had much the same story as the Jews. However, they were not descended from Abraham, instigated a great deal of the griping (“murmuring”) from God’s people, and undermined everything Moses and Joshua did. They did not walk by faith and thought anyone asking them to do so was running a scam.
The other group of non-Israelites were the “Am-Ha-aretz,” a Hebraism literally meaning “people of the land.” These were the residue, the leftovers, from the Canaanites who had resided there prior to the coming of the Israelites. By hook or crook, they had managed to survive the Joshua wars and stay on. Some became maids and handymen, while most were simply neighbors. (They’re referred to in passing in places like 2 Kings 23:30; Jeremiah 1:18, etc.)
These two groups were not of Israel, not of the redeemed, and not followers of Jehovah God. They did not participate in the holy days, did not bring sacrificial offerings, and did not pray to Israel’s God. They were along for the ride.
In your church today, there are the committed and the dependable, the faithful and the redeemed. Call a work day, and they will be there. Let the church go through a tough time, and they will endure.
Then, there are all the others. That includes visitors, spectators, customers (“our children go to the day care” or “we like their musical programs”), seekers, the interested, sweethearts of members, and such. We are not disparaging them in any way, not calling them bad people. Among them can be found sincere and godly believers who for some reason have not joined. For the most part, they are all undependable. They have not committed themselves to this church.
We want them there and they are welcome, but you cannot build a church on this second group.
By Joe – For Ug Christian News
