“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1Pet 2:12).
Christians are called to holy living (Matt 5:48, 1Pet 1:16) and to love our enemies (Matt 5:44), our neighbors (Mark 12:31), and our brothers in Christ (John 13:34). Our lives can be a witness to the lost world around us (eg, Matt 5:16, John 13:35). We’re not very good at this (cf, Acts 6:1, 1Cor 6:6), but when we do it right, it is glorious.
What does it mean to love our brothers and sisters in Christ? Scripture expands on the call to love one another with dozens of more specific commands. One person has helpfully cataloged them.1 This is what it looks like to love one another: We honor one another, accept one another, serve one another, forgive one another, encourage one another, submit to one another, and pray for one another among many, many other instructions.
When we love the way Christ has told us to love, the world notices. The Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate (332-363) complained, “[Christianity] has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.”2
Early Christians were known both for their refusal to abandon “undesirable” newborns and for taking in those of others. They were known for marital fidelity and charity.3 They cared for orphans, widows, and prisoners:
Though we have our treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. ... These gifts are, as it were, piety’s deposit fund. For they are not taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God’s Church, they become the nurslings of their confession.4
They also cared for the sick — even plague victims. Shelley tells of one such account:
In the year 165, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, a devastating epidemic swept through the Roman Empire. ... No one knew how to treat the stricken. Nor did most people try. During the first plague, the famous classical physician Galen fled Rome for his country estate where he stayed until the danger subsided. ... [But] Christians met the obligation to care for the sick rather than desert them, and thereby saved enormous numbers of lives!5
As Stark points out, countless numbers of those whose lives were saved by Christians undoubtedly became Christians, but besides that the world saw what was happening. As Tertullian put it, the unbelievers could not help but say, “See how they love one another.”4
As the centuries have progressed, Christians have been known for founding orphanages, hospitals, and schools. They have fed the hungry, nursed the sick, and taught people to read — even inventing written languages where there was none.
Sadly, this reputation has not followed Christianity to the present day because this behavior has not. But it can once more. The commands to love each other and our neighbor have not changed. We only have to obey them again.
If you’d like to view Christianity through the eyes of a charitable unbeliever, you might enjoy Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland (not Spider-Man).
1 "The 59 ‘One Another’ Statements in the Bible" https://churchleaders.com/smallgroups/small-group-articles/176356-the-59-one-another-statements-in-the-bible.html
2 Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language
3 Epistle to Diognetus, ch 5
4 Tertullian, Apology, ch. 39
5 Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb 10:24-25).
Why do we need to come together on a weekly basis? There’s only so much weekend, and to be honest people can get kind of annoying. Why can’t we learn about Jesus from books or by listening to sermons online? There are several reasons why the church needs to meet together in the same place.
The first is worship. It’s odd, but I can’t put my finger on a verse that says the church should worship. It’s simply assumed. All throughout the scriptures God’s people worship because that is the natural response to believing what we believe — that a holy God took on flesh and died to save us from the consequences of our own sin. That God is worthy of praise. So we gather together to worship God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). It’s not enough to sing at home alone (or with our families) for two reasons: First, worship is corporate. Whenever we see God’s people worshipping, they are doing it together, and as it has been, so it shall always be (cf, Rev 4). Second, when we worship we encourage each other and “teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” (Col 3:16). So worship is both for God and for us.
The second reason we come together is for discipleship. Jesus commanded us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them ... and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). The mission of the Church is to take the gospel to all nations, but the work doesn’t stop there. We’re to make disciples, not just converts, and that takes time. So we bring converts to the church where they become disciples. It’s done a little at a time, week after week. We can quit going to church when we’re just like Jesus. Of course, Jesus probably wouldn’t miss church.
And, thirdly, that discipleship is best done by the church body, not just one person, because the Spirit has given different believers different gifts “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:12-13). We are to build each other up, not just sit and listen to one person doing all the work. As important as good sermons are, that is not all of discipleship. Discipleship happens when we learn from each other, encourage each other, and, yes, irritate each other. Learning to love your brother or sister in Christ even when it’s hard is an important part of discipleship.
The fourth reason we come together is for fellowship, to support each other. We’re not just in church to learn about the Bible. Living for Christ in a fallen world is difficult. Living as “aliens and strangers” (1Pet 2:11), trying to be “in the world but not of the world” (John 17:14-19) is hard, confusing, and perplexing. And life in this world is harder on some than on others. So we come together in order to “encourage one another and build each other up” (1Thes 5:11) and to meet each other’s material needs (cf, 1John 3:17, Acts 4:32-37, 11:29). Paul says, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1Cor 12:26). “While hurt is reduced, joy is increased by being shared. We are to encourage and sympathize with each other.”1
We are the Church wherever we are, but the body needs to come together to be what it was meant to be. So “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb 10:24-25).
I am only able to barely scratch the surface on the topic of worship. I recommend the chapter “Worship” in Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.
1 Millard Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine
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“For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body...” (1Cor 12:13).
We can better understand the Church by looking, once again, at pictures used by the scriptures.
The Body of Christ (eg, 1Cor 12:12-27, Eph 4:1-16, Rom 12:3-8)
Christ has left the world, and yet Christ’s body is still in the world continuing his work. The Church is his body, with Christ as the head and, like Christ’s metaphor of the vine and branches (John 15:1-17), our life flows from him. The Church is the expression of Christ in the world today; they see him only to the extent that we show him to them.
Not only are we connected to him, we are connected to each other. The body has different parts that depend on each other. The body needs ears and eyes, a heart and a liver, lungs and bowels and muscles. If one part is unhealthy, the body is unhealthy.
“If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body” (1Cor 12:17-19). God has made his church, like the world, to be full of variety. Believers are given different spiritual gifts for various tasks, and all are necessary. The body is healthy only when all the parts are present and functioning properly. An unchurched believer is like a liver sitting on a table by itself — both the organ and the body will suffer because they are separated.
A Building and the Temple of the Holy Spirit (eg, Eph 2:20-22, 1Pet 2:5, 1Cor 3:16)
Believers are “living stones” being “built into a spiritual house” (1Pet 2:5) on “the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Eph 2:20). This building is a temple of the Holy Spirit (Eph 2:21-22, 1Cor 3:16) and therefore holy to God.
Once again, the picture is of believers being interconnected. A Christian who is not part of a church is leaving a hole in the wall, and that believer is just a stone serving no purpose rather than a part of the temple of the Holy Spirit. Just as in a wall one stone is held up by those below it, we hold each other up in our struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. The missing stone is being held up by no one and holds no one up.
The foundation of the apostles and prophets is their teaching in the scriptures. That is what we build the Church on, with Christ as the standard and model. It is not wrong to acknowledge the learning the world has gained through God’s common grace, but we must remind ourselves that not everything modern humans think they know is true and remind ourselves that we can only have one foundation. Churches must be cautious in the use of the world’s “knowledge.”
Flock of Sheep (eg, 1Pet 5:1-4, Acts 20:28-30, Heb 13:20-21)
God calls his people “sheep” a lot. It’s not a compliment. Sure they’re cute, and they were valuable, but they are powerfully stupid and almost completely helpless. Sheep need a shepherd. God’s people need a shepherd.
We are weak and helpless sheep, and our “enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1Pet 5:8). What’s more, “savage wolves” will be among the flock, trying to destroy God’s Church from within (Matt 7:15, Acts 20:28-30). God gave his church shepherds, the pastors who are supposed to guide us and protect us. Sadly, sometimes pastors turn out to be wolves, but that only shows how dangerous the world is and our need for good shepherds. And all the shepherds serve under the Good Shepherd (Heb 13:20-21) who will ultimately keep his flock safe.
The Family of God (eg, 1Tim 5:1-2, 2Cor 6:18)
The Church is called a family, with God — as we said before — as our Father. Believers are to act like brothers and sisters in a family. Which means we will squabble and fight, and we won’t always like each other, but we need to love each other and act like we love each other. We are to treat each other with grace and make sure that our family’s needs are met. And this love when done right will be a testimony to the world about Christ (John 13:35, 17:23).
The Bride of Christ (eg, Eph 5:22-33, Rev 19-22)
Finally, the Church, collectively, is the Bride of Christ. This speaks to Christ’s affection for his Church and his care for her. “...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph 5:25-27). And in line with the tradition of the time, Christ is preparing a home for his bride. One day he will come to get her and take her to their new home. But that is a topic for another time.
Together these pictures show that the Church is a collective, an interdependent people who need the leadership Christ gives through his chosen leaders to make her way and to make a difference in this fallen world.
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“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Eph 2:15b-16).
When Christ said he’d build his “church” in Matt 16:18, the Greek word used, ekklesia, means “called out ones. “It was also used of an assembly; so the idea is that the church is a special assembly of people called out from the world to become part of God’s family”1 and “set apart for a holy task.”2 The English word “church” derives from the Greek kyriakon which “refers to those who are possessed or owned by the kyrios, or Lord.”2
The thing is, before Christ created his Church, God already had an assembly, a holy people — the Jews. In Jewish thought, all the world was divided into two peoples — Jews and everyone else, called Gentiles. Christ’s Church was to take from the Jews and from the Gentiles to make a new people, a people now called Christians.
When the Apostles’ Creed says, “I believe ... in the holy catholic Church”, it is not saying that we are all Roman Catholics. “Catholic” means universal. (Yes, that means “Romans Catholic” is a bit of an oxymoron.) The creed is saying there is one universal assembly, one people, set apart to God.
Everyone who is called to Jesus is called to be part of that assembly. John Stott calls unchurched Christians a “grotesque anomaly” and says, “The New Testament knows nothing of such a person. For the church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. ... Indeed, Christ died for us not only ‘to redeem us from all wickedness’ but also to ‘purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good’ (Titus 2:14).”3
But not everyone who attends church is part of the Church. There will always be church members who are not true believers, and there are a few true believers who for good reason cannot be part of a church. Historically we have referred to the “visible Church” (those who appear to be Christians) and the “invisible Church” (those who actually are).
What is the difference between the Church and a church? There is one holy Church, but it meets in many places at many times in local expressions called churches.
So is every gathering of Christians a church? No. There are parachurch organizations created for charity or missions. There are gatherings of believers to study the scriptures or fellowship. These aren’t churches.
A church must, first of all, be trying to follow Christ as laid out in the scriptures. If a group is no more bound to the scriptures than they are to the writings of Thoreau or Emerson, they are not following Christ. Which means not every group that claims to be a church truly is one.
Second, even if they are Christians, they must be trying to be a church. This includes baptism and celebrating the Lord’s Supper. “So, functionally, a church is a group of Christians who believe and proclaim the Bible, and intend to function as a church.”4
Why did Christ create his Church? We are part of his work to establish the kingdom of God. “[O]ur job is to help establish the rule of God in the hearts of people and bring the values and priorities of God’s kingdom to bear on every aspect of our culture.”1 We are here to represent God to the people around us and to try to bring them into his kingdom. This is something the forces of darkness do not want. They will oppose us at every turn. But Christ has promised, the gates of hell will not prevail against us (Matt 16:18).
1 Tony Evans, Theology You Can Count On
2 RC Sproul, Everyone's a Theologian
3 John RW Stott, The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor
4 Rick Cornish, 5 Minute Theologian
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“...on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt 16:18).
Christianity is a team sport.
I think basketball is a good analogy. Unlike football, you can play a reasonable imitation of a proper basketball game one-on-one. But you cannot play one-on-five against a team. Trying to do battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil by yourself is like trying to play one-on-five basketball against a professional team: You simply cannot win. You need a team. You need the Church.
What is the Church? The Church is not a building. And the Church is not an event. What happens on Sunday morning is a meeting of the Church.
The Church is a community. It is the assembly of the people God has called to himself. There is one Church, and there are many, many local gatherings of the people of God called churches.
What is the Church supposed to be? Why do we gather? How are we supposed to help each other in our war against the enemy? Why is the church sometimes not very attractive? These are the kinds of questions we’ll consider as we look at the Doctrine of the Church.
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“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).
What is the gospel? Let's sum up what we've learned so far.
The God who spoke the universe into existence, who needs nothing at all, made human beings to know him and have a relationship with him. But when we sinned — and whenever we sin — we created a separation between us and him. We became something that cannot exist in his presence and someone whose company he cannot abide. We also joined in the treason of the fallen angels. The punishment for treason is death, but all the treasonous beings were designed to be immortal, so hell was created as a way to isolate the contagion and punish the guilty. When we joined their rebellion, we joined their fate.
But God, who is rich in mercy, chose to create a way for us to escape that fate. God became a man. As Jesus, he lived the perfect life we owe our creator. Then he was put to death on the cross, his sinless death being accepted as a payment for the debt we owe for our crimes.
Then he rose from the dead, not only proving that he was who he claimed to be, but also defeating death, showing what will happen to those who trust in him. Through him we can be reconciled to the God who made us to be with him.
To escape hell, all we have to do is live a perfectly sinless life from the moment of our conception to the moment of our death. Or we can place our hope in the death and resurrection of Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins.
When you trust in Jesus, you are united with Christ. Your sins are forgiven and forgotten. The Spirit of God transforms you into something new, making you someone that seeks God and can live with God. And you are adopted as a child and heir of that God.
One day every human being will stand before God’s judgement. Those who have not trusted in Christ will be held responsible for their own sins; they will be found guilty and “thrown into the outer darkness” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 8:12). Those who have placed their trust in Christ will be found not guilty, because Christ has taken their sin. They will see the results of their adoption in Christ, becoming heirs of God, reigning with him in his renewed kingdom forever.
“Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'” (John 14:6).
How can there only be one way to God? If God is love, shouldn’t he make it easy for people to find the way to heaven? And what about those who’ve never heard the gospel? Why is Christianity so exclusive?
The best answer to whether there could be more than one way for humans to be reconciled to God is to look at Jesus. God the Son became human, lived a hard, poor, oppressed life, died a horrible death, and experienced the wrath of God. If there were any other way, would he have done that? Of course not.
The problem in our thinking is we’re prone to seeing religion as a matter of personal preference. If someone says Christianity is better than Hinduism, that’s like saying vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate. Why would you say someone else’s personal preference is wrong?
It’s really a matter of truth. What actually works? Medicine is a far better analogy. To say that penicillin is the proper treatment for a disease isn’t to say that I like penicillin better than saline; it means penicillin will actually cure the disease whereas saline will not. To say that Christianity can save and Hinduism can’t is to say that Christianity has the cure for sin (Jesus) and Hinduism doesn’t. Jesus and the apostles repeatedly taught that there is no hope for mankind apart from Jesus, and that’s why they risked their lives to take the gospel to the ends of the earth and told us to do the same. “Singular problems need singular solutions.”1 Sin is the most singular of problems, and trusting in the death of the God-man is the only solution. For people to get to heaven without trusting in Jesus requires salvation by works. But our works are pitifully inadequate.
“Why can’t God just be happy that they believe?” Some people want to think being a faithful Hindu or Muslim should be enough to please God. But that’s watering down “believe” into the worst of modern terms. It’s not enough to believe that God exists. “Even the demons believe that—and tremble” (James 2:19). Biblical faith requires depending on Christ alone for your righteousness, something that is anathema to every human religion.
“Do people go to hell just because they don’t believe in Jesus?” No. They go to hell because they have committed treason against their King. Not believing in Jesus is simply failing to take advantage of the offer of amnesty.
But what about those who’ve never heard of that offer of amnesty? That’s an issue that has caused a lot of ink to be spent. First, some hard truths: We’re all sinners who deserve the just punishment of God. No one is owed grace — by its very definition, grace is what we do not deserve. The people who’ve never heard the gospel still sin willingly.
Second, some comforting truths: God is God. The universe is not run by the temperamental Allah of Islam nor the petty gods of the pagan pantheons. The world will answer to the holy loving justice of the God who describes himself as “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished ...” (Ex 34:6-7).
And this God is sovereign. He doesn’t just oversee the universe; he runs it. In Acts we read how Philip was sent to meet an Ethiopian official who was seeking after God. After that he was physically relocated to where God wanted him to preach next (8:26-40). We also have the story of Cornelius being told to seek out Peter (10:1-8). In the modern world, similar things happen. There are many stories today of people having dreams telling them where to go or who to seek out to find out about Jesus. God can get the gospel where it needs to go. But most people, whether in the jungles of Africa or the cities of the West, simply don’t want to bow their knee to the true God.
“Why can’t God just forgive everybody?” That would send the message that sin isn’t a big deal, and it is. It’s treason against the King. It also harms people. When we suggest that God should just forgive, we don’t really mean he should forgive everyone; we know some people are murderers or harm children. But everyone hurts other people with their sin. When we steal or lie or gossip, we’re hurting other people. We don’t want people who harm us to get away with it; we can’t be allowed to get away with it either. The crime must be paid for. Or it must be atoned for.
Those worried about the fate of people who’ve never heard the gospel should make it their mission to see that they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
1 Greg Koukl, The Story of Reality
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