Membership, what’s the deal?
Who are God’s people, what are they responsible for, and what privileges do they receive?
Don’t Tread On Me
Before we jump into the meat of it, let’s just point out the elephant sized snake in the room. “Don’t Tread on Me” was a catchphrase created in 1775 to offer a veiled threat against tyranny and to herald autonomy from the 13 colonies against England. However, it now acts as a more accurate slogan of our age. We DO NOT like authority. We don’t want anyone over us, and we don’t want to be expected to be responsible for others. To put it in biblical terms, the West wants to “do what is right in their own eyes.” This seems to be the prevailing sentiment even in the church. We like our religion private and our responsibility to be just me and my Bible.
That, simply, is not the church Christ establishes or prescribes in Holy Scripture.
Covenant
Marriage
Let me begin with an analogy. In spite of our culture’s best efforts to destroy marriage, we still understand that it is a covenantal relationship that affords certain responsibilities and privileges. Duties and delights.
In marriage, an agreement is freely made between a man and a woman, before God and witnesses, to uphold the duties of caring for and protecting each other and also to give of oneself to each other. This doesn’t happen by accident and it doesn’t happen by proximity. A couple who is dating is understood to not be married. Time does not change that (common-law marriage is only recognized in a few states). Neither do they wake up one day and find themselves accidentally married. They don’t (ought not) get to enjoy the privileges of marriage, neither do they get to expect the same kind of duties fulfilled on their behalf by their significant other.
Imagine you have guests over for dinner. You have a wonderful time full of laughter, good conversations, and full bellies. After dinner is finished, one of your guests says they’re gonna look through your drawers for a comfy pair of pajama pants to put on. Then they throw their laundry into your machine and start eating out of a carton of ice cream. I suspect you would not invite that person back to your house. They have no sense of boundaries! But, that scenario is not bizarre if it’s your wife. That’s because she’s part of the family, she belongs there. There is a covenantal relationship in marriage that affords them more duties and delights.
Local Church
Now, let us think about the church as a covenant. We are united in Christ, and unto one another. This union is in one part involuntary (we don’t get to be united with Christ and not His body) and another part voluntary at a local level. This agreement is visible in baptism and the Lord’s Table. The Bible presupposes that Christians are connected to other Christian (and commands such in Heb. 10:25). However, there are two parts in any agreement. The interested party and the local church. A person doesn’t get to force herself into the church, and neither can the church force a person into the body.
Furthermore, overseeing the body as an under-shepherd is the pastor. He has to know who his flock is because it’s those people that he is personally responsible for, before God. On the flipside, the under-shepherd’s flock is responsible to obey their pastor.
“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
Hebrews 13:17
So who is it that the pastor is responsible for? Anyone in earshot? Who must obey this pastor? Anyone who visits? No. Who must supply the needs for this pastor? The barista when he finds out this regular customer is a pastor? Of course not! Only those who have formally entered into a covenant relationship with the body, and the body with them.
One Another
Have you ever had a meal brought to you when you were sick? Or had a brother or sister in Christ visit while you’re in the hospital? These are privileges of close relationships. Holy Scripture is replete with similar duties that Christians are covenant-bound to fulfill for their brothers and sisters. These are often called the “One Anothers”, and there are a bunch. These duties are primarily directed at other believers and assume proximity. You can’t effectively “bear one another’s burdens” with someone you talk to on Skype once a month. This goes on for many of the duties we have to other Christians.
Nuke Codes
Mark Dever has asked the question, “Who do you want to have the nuke codes?” What he means is that because the church must execute church discipline (nuclear warhead), it can only be reasoned that not everyone should be responsible for pressing the big red button. In fact, Scripture is clear on this matter:
“If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
‘Matthew 18:17
“When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 5:4-5
The church is responsible for soberly, prayerfully, and with a heavy heart, execute church discipline. That means the visitor is not. Neither is the long-term attendee who has rejected the covenant.
Excommunication is an essential duty of the church, but what about choosing your leadership?
“Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.”
Acts 6:3
Who is being called upon to choose the deacons (yeah I think they’re deacons, don’t come after me)? Well in verse 2 it tells us that Peter gathered “all the disciples”, then told the “brothers and sisters” to choose seven men. Should a visitor have a say in who leads or serves your church? I don’t think so.
Visible Covenant
So when do we see the covenant? We see it when we baptize. A person is normatively baptized into the local body.
“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”
Acts 2:41
We also see it every time we partake in the Lord’s Table. I often refer to communion as a “head up eyes open” ordinance. This is contrasted by the typical “heads bowed and eyes closed” participation we see in most churches. There is no doubt a part of the liturgy of the Lord’s Table for self-examination, but I believe it is predominantly one where we observe the spiritual body of Christ and the physical body of Christ in the church’s members.
“But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.”
1 Corinthians 11:17
“For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
1 Corinthians 11:29
We have necessarily been bound to one another in our union to Christ. We live out the life of Christ as members of the local church. We witness our shared union in our ordinances. And the nuclear codes are only for those who are a part of the family, so to speak.
Conclusion
Without membership, the body of Christ is left to their own devices regarding what duties they are bound to, what delights they are privileged to enjoy, and left guessing as to who the church actually is.
Belonging to the church as a member means something far more than simply attending while it suits you, how it suits you, until it doesn’t suit you. God’s Word has a much more beautiful picture of the church that is so much better for our flourishing and presents a truly compelling community (which is a great book by Jamie Dunlop and Mark Dever). The covenant provides the guardrails and the consequences for church life. This identifies who the church is, provides the ethics of Christian life that all members agree to, and guards the church from when that agreement (covenant) is violated.
So, I hope that offers some insight into why membership matters. For further reading, there are dozens of books and articles on the topic from IX Marks.
The Noble Home
“Feminism is one of the most effective evils to face humanity.”
That’s how I started Sunday’s sermon. In my last sermon for a few months we unpacked the beauty of God’s noble home in Proverbs 31. We ended with confession and prayer, and a charge to work together to build the noble home that God has designed.
Prayer Requests
Praise/prayer, the couple I mentioned last week will be visiting us during our training this next week to meet the team and get a feel for things. After that we’ll all decide if it’s a good fit. I feel optimistic and look forward to Friday! However, please pray for Rachel (Russell’s wife) as she has a painful affliction right now. She’s taking meds but it’s gonna take time to be remedied. Please pray for her and for Russell, especially since there’s nothing to be done about the pain other than wait.
Praise, Wendy has been released from the hospital! There’s no doubt going to be some recovery/adjustments but we’re happy to hear she’s on the mend.
Pray for our family, and several others in the church, an ugly cold has come through and the house is filled with the cacophony of coughing.
