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What Should the Character
of the Church Be?
The Great Wall of China is one of the marvels of the world. It was built
to identify the border of China as well as to keep out invading
Mongolian hordes. It is so massive and long that it is one of the few
objects on earth that can be seen from space. The wall runs 1,500 miles
from the Mongolian plateau in the west to the Yellow Sea. The wall
varies from twelve to forty feet in width and from twenty to fifty feet
in height! Imagine a stone wall approximately twenty feet wide and forty
feet high running from New York City nearly to Denver, Colorado, and you
get some idea of the magnitude of this astonishing structure.
And was it effective in keeping out the invading hordes? Well, yes and
no. It was effective in that no invasion ever climbed over, broke down,
or went around the wall. However, the Manchu conquerors of the Ming
dynasty simply bribed a gatekeeper who opened the gate wide and allowed
them to walk through. The flaw in the Chinese defense was placing too
much reliance on the wall and not giving enough attention to the
character of the people guarding the wall.
So it is with our personal defenses. On the whole, most of us would not
be liars or cheaters or stealers. Most of us have an adequate wall of
character built around our lives. But we all have weak spots, and those
weak spots must be given as much as or more attention than our strong
spots. What value is there if we would never embezzle funds from our
employer, but our life is destroyed because we commit adultery? No,
total character is important. It may be that our life is only as secure
as our weakest character trait.
Just as character is important for individuals, so it is also important
for Churches. Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to
visit different churches all over this brotherhood. I have learned that
each church had it’s own personality. Sometimes the church was a happy
church, quick to laugh. Other times it was a sober church, slow to
laugh, but quick to see deeper truths. Still other times it was a
critical church, quick to say something sarcastic or cutting.
Sometimes this personality was a reflection of a preacher who had been
at the church for a very long time. Other times, it was a result of a
core group of people who had made up the backbone of the church for many
years. But just as a person has a character, so a church has a
character.
Francis Schaeffer once said that we ought to examine our values and
behavior very carefully, because we catch our values and behavior the
same way we catch the measles—by being around others who have them; and
upon reflection, we might actually prefer different values and behavior.
That is a rather profound statement. I can change—that I can be
different, better than I am.
I believe a group of people can do the same. Specifically, I believe a
church can change. But what would a church aspire to? If a church wanted
to be different or more, what would it be?
The Scripture helps here, because I believe the Scripture gives not only
individuals, but also churches, a picture of what their character ought
to be. There are three words in Scripture which are repeated over and
over again as characteristics which a church does, or ought to, possess.
These characteristics, as separate entities, are common to all of us,
but they should be present in the Body. These three character traits for
a local church are faith, hope, and love.
We see in many of the letters to churches in the New Testament the
observation that churches ought to possess these three characteristics.
Perhaps the most powerful statement concerning these three
characteristics is found in 1 Corinthians 13:13: “Now abide faith, hope,
love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”
However, we also see them in letters to other churches.
For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which
exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving
thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; … that you
may know what is the hope of His calling (Ephesians 1:15–16, 18 NASB).
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your
love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in
heaven (Colossians 1:3–5).
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our
prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love,
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God
and Father (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3).
Paul frequently mentioned two or three of these characteristics in the
opening of his letters to churches. That is why it seems reasonable to
conclude that these are three marks which he wants to be true of the
character of a local church.
Seeing then that these three characteristics are defining
characteristics for a healthy local church, we will look more closely at
each one.
What Is Faith?
Faith is believing what God has said and acting accordingly.
If the Bible is true, then we must do something about it. James 2:17:
“Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
We must change our personal character, and we must try to change the
world in which we live. The gospel is so amazing, so astonishing a truth
that we cannot kept it to ourselves, any more than a limitless source of
water could be kept a secret from people dying of thirst.
Chuck Colson, in his book Faith on the Line, tells about a Prison
Fellowship seminar in Kentucky when eight prisoners walked forward and
made professions of faith in Christ. Then, inmates filled a galvanized
horse tank with water and baptized them in the presence of all the
prisoners. Some jeered. Others watched intently. Because of Christ,
those eight men had the courage to take a stand for Him in prison where
doing so is not merely a witness. It is a risk to their lives. That is
faith in action.
It has been said that if you don't know what you are aiming for, you
have very little chance of hitting it.
So it is with the church. If we don't know what God expects of a church,
in terms of its character, we are not likely to be very effective in
manifesting it. Also, since a church is made up of people, we,
ourselves, must manifest the same character traits as the church as a
whole should. Otherwise we may be part of the problem in the church,
rather than part of the solution.
Some years ago, Jack Eckerd, founder of Eckerd Drug Stores, became a
believer. The first thing he did was to take Playboy and Penthouse
magazines out of the stores. Managers protested, “We're making a huge
profit selling those magazines.”
Eckerd replied, “I don't care. Take those magazines out of my stores.”
That is faith in action.
If we believe the Bible, it demands that we do something. If it says we
should change, we must change. If it says we must go into all the world
and preach the gospel, we must go. If it says we should preach the word
faithfully, we must preach it. If it says we must worship God in spirit
and in truth, then we must worship. Faith is a matter of finding out
what God says and doing it.
Faith also means we cannot give up what we believe, if indeed we believe
it. Persecution, ridicule, discrimination may come, but a living,
dynamic faith remains true—not without struggle, perhaps, but in the
end, it remains true.
Perhaps we may not be faced with the same experiences as Chuck Colson in
a prison, or Jack Eckerd in a national, multi-million-dollar business.
But the principles are the same for us all.
We may not risk our lives to share our faith with others, or to let
others know that we are Christians. But we may risk our reputation as a
business person or salesman or PTA member. We may risk embarrassment to
share Christ with a neighbor. We may risk our comfort zone to minister
to the needy on Thanksgiving rather than watch parades and football on
television.
Or, like Jack Eckerd, we may need to make some decisions that cost us
money because of our faith. Perhaps we will decide to shop at a more
expensive grocery store because they do not carry pornographic
magazines. Or maybe we will buy our gas from a service station operated
by a faithful believer, even though we could buy it for a couple cents
cheaper per gallon down the street, where the cheaper gas is subsidized
by profits from porn.
Not all decisions of faith are monumental. Many Christians never let
others know that they are Christians, and many never do anything to
encourage Christian principles in the world if it costs them any money.
We must try to determine what the Bible says and do it, whether it is a
big thing like putting our life on the line by declaring publicly in
prison that we are a Christian, or whether it is a small thing like
putting our ego on the line by declaring publicly at PTA that we are a
Christian.
My question for you tonight is what do you believe?
And How has the belief manifested itself in your life?
What Is Hope?
Hope is putting your confidence in the future.
Christians are faced with decisions on whether or not to remain
faithful, and when they do, their hope often makes the difference. There
is a clear link between faith and hope. What causes Christians to suffer
for Christ's sake? It is hope, eternal hope in Jesus Christ. They
realize that this earth is not their home; they are just passing
through. They are strangers here, sojourners. Their real home is in
heaven.
Out of this hope, the apostle Paul wrote from prison, “For to me, to
live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
He knew that if the broad-bladed ax of the Roman government fell to the
back of his neck, he would have a home in heaven. “For we know that if
our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians
5:1).
In Corrie ten Boom's book, Tramp for the Lord, she has a chapter
entitled “A Strange Place to Hope.” In this chapter she tells the story
of being taken to Ravensbruk, a dreadful concentration camp in Germany
during World War II. She and her sister, Betsie, had been arrested for
aiding and abetting Jews in their home in Holland. The first thing the
authorities did was take away all personal belongings, and dress
everyone in prison clothing. This was a terrifying prospect, since they
desperately wanted to preserve their most cherished possession, a small
Bible. She tied the Bible to a string around her neck to try to hide it.
Then Corrie writes,
Of course when I put on the flimsy prison dress, the Bible bulged
beneath it. But that was [God's] business, not mine. At the exit, guards
were [searching] every prisoner, front, back and sides. I prayed, “Oh,
Lord, send your angels to surround us.” But then I remembered that
angels are spirits and you can see through them. What I needed was an
angel to shield me so the guards could not see me. “Lord,” I prayed
again, “make your angels un-transparent.” How unorthodox you can pray
when you are in great need! But God did not mind. He did it.
The woman ahead of me was searched. Behind me, Betsie was searched. They
did not touch or even look at me. It was as though I was blocked out of
their sight.
So Betsie and I came to our barracks at Ravensbruk. Before long we were
holding Bible study groups for an ever-growing group of believers, and
Barracks 28 became known throughout the camp as “the crazy place, where
they hope.”
Yes, hoped, in spite of all that human madness could do. We had learned
that a stronger power had the final word, even here.
Alexander Pope has written, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”
And so it does. We live on hope. We prosper on hope. We survive on hope.
When we lose hope, we die. Those who commit suicide do so because they
lose hope that their present pain, which they feel is intolerable, will
ever be relieved. As long as you have hope you can hang on. Without it,
you let go.
Corrie and her fellow Christians hoped. They placed their hope in the
fact that God would see them through the torment of their circumstances,
and that when they died (as they knew many of them would) they would go
to heaven. Those two “hopes” made life bearable for them.
Those who have hope that they can make a difference in this life, and
have hope of reward and eternal life after death, are able to face with
joy the constant stream of diversions, disappointments, and defeats that
life brings. Hope is a constant flow of water to a soul in the desert.
Hope is a life jacket to a soul lost at sea. Hope is a pathway to one
lost in the wilderness. The water, the life jacket, the pathway enable
you to carry on, to put your confidence in the future.
If you have the hope that heaven is your place of reward, it might
strengthen you to stick it out in a difficult marriage. It may
strengthen you to be more honest and ethical in your business, even
though it costs you money and the standard of living you hoped to have
in this world. It may strengthen you to try to help others even if you
are in poor health, or in poverty, or experiencing discrimination.
When you have hope that this world is not your home, and that the true
payoff for Christians will never be in this world, but in the next, it
can strengthen you to be content in this world, even though this world
has disappointed you.
When a church hopes, it places its confidence in the promises of God. It
places its hope in the glory that is to be revealed to us at the coming
of Jesus (Romans 8:18). It places its hope in the things that are not
seen, rather than the things that are seen, for the things that are seen
are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians
4:16–18).
The church that hopes endures the pain, the frustration, the lure of
sin, the unfulfilled desires, the unanswered prayer, the circumstances
gone awry, and remains faithful to the Lord, knowing that the future is
when all things are set right. The church that hopes knows that the
sufferings we have now are nothing compared to the great glory that will
be given to us. Everything that God made is waiting with excitement for
the time when God will show the world who his children are. The whole
world wants very much for that to happen. Everything that God made was
changed to become useless. This was not by its own wish. It happened
because God wanted it. But there was this hope: that everything God made
would be set free from ruin. There was hope that everything God made
would have the freedom and glory that belong to God's children.
We know that everything God made has been waiting until now in pain,
like a woman ready to give birth. Not only the world, but we also have
been waiting with pain inside us. We have the Spirit as the first part
of God's promise. So we are waiting for God to finish making us his own
children. I mean we are waiting for our bodies to be made free. We were
saved, and we have this hope. If we see what we are waiting for, then
that is not really hope. People do not hope for something they already
have. But we are hoping for something that we do not have yet. We are
waiting for it patiently (Romans 8:18–25 NEW CENTURY VERSION).
Yes, this is our hope—that someday, everything will be set right. The
church that hopes takes to heart Paul's words in Colossians 3:1–3:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on
things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is
hidden with Christ in God.
Hope takes us out of ourselves and puts us into Christ and eternal
things. Hope puts its confidence in the future and spends its resources
on things that last for eternity.
What Is Love?
Love is the exercise of my will for the good of another.
Scripture has three different words which are all translated into
English as “love.” Agape means the exercise of my will for the good of
another. Philos means the love of friendship. The original language of
the New Testament also has another word for love, eros, which means
physical love. It is a limitation of the English language that we
translate all three of these words as “love,” since they have such
different meanings and produce such disastrous consequences if mixed up.
We often think of love as a sweeping emotion, a deep feeling of
affection for someone. However that concept comes from Hollywood, not
from Scripture. Elvis used to sing that his girl needed to “be his”
tonight! It was now or never, because his love wouldn't wait. That is
not love. That is a tidal wave of hormones crashing on the beach of
life! That is not the noble character trait to which the apostle calls
the church. That is the carnal appetite of an alley cat.
Throughout the recent history of song, film, and literature, the
emotional bonding that is part of philos love or the physical desire of
eros love are substituted for the selfless character trait of agape
love.
While the Scriptures never define agape, they do describe it in 1
Corinthians 13:4–7:
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade
itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own,
is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but
rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.
Do you want to know if you are truly loving? Ask yourself if you are
patient (suffer long). Are you kind? Are you puffed up? Do you behave
rudely? Do you seek your own? We can get a very clear picture very
quickly whether or not we are “loving” in the biblical sense. This is a
far cry from Elvis's demand to have his cravings satisfied tonight!
If there is strife in the church, someone is not loving. If there is
conflict, if there is petty jealousy, if there are power struggles, if
there are factions and cliques in the church, it is not a loving church.
Francis Schaeffer once wrote a booklet entitled The Mark of a Christian.
I read it nearly thirty years ago, but it made a lasting impression on
me. The mark Schaeffer referred to was love. Shortly before Jesus was to
be crucified, He met with His disciples in an upper room to prepare them
for what was to come. Here, He told them what this mark was:
Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will
seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, “Where I am going, you cannot come,”
so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this
all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one
another (John 13:33–35).
The passage has a condition in it. All people would know that they were
Jesus' disciples if they had love for one another. Jesus gave them a
command to love one another, but that command could be violated. But if
they violated it, and did not have love for one another, the outside
world would have no reason to believe that they were Jesus' disciples.
It is possible to be a Christian without showing the mark, but if we
expect non-Christians to know that we are Christians, we must show the
mark.
In the same booklet, Schaeffer went on to another event which occurred
just a few minutes later. Jesus had finished talking with His disciples
and had begun to pray to God the Father. In this prayer He said,
I pray … that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in
You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that
You sent Me (John 17:21).
In this passage, Jesus implies that unity among Christians is a powerful
argument that Jesus was sent from God. If the world sees unity among
Christians, it has a reason to believe that God sent Jesus. The
opposite, by inference, would also be true. If non-Christians do not see
unity among Christians, they have a reason to believe that Christ was
not sent from God (The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century
133–153).
A number of years ago, I read a survey taken of people who said that
they were not Christians. The two most common reasons they said they
were not Christians were that they doubted that Christ was God, and
because of all the hypocrites in the church. There seemed to me to be a
correlation. They did not believe that Christ's disciples were true
disciples (all the hypocrites) and they doubted that Christ was God
(Christ was sent from God). It seems possible to me that the two major
reasons people say they do not become Christians are because of the
failure of the church in its two primary responsibilities: love and
unity, which are really the flip side of each other.
Even if the church manifested love and unity perfectly, not everyone in
the whole world would become Christian. Even in the years following the
resurrection of Christ in the book of Acts, when Christianity was,
arguably, at its best, not everyone wanted to become a Christian. If
someone does not want to become a Christian, he will be able to find
plenty of excuses. Unbelief never has enough proof.
On the other hand, to the degree that the church manifests love and
unity, it is able to evangelize from a stance of strength. To the degree
that the church does not manifest love and unity, it evangelizes from a
position of weakness, having to overcome some valid concerns before a
person has a reason to believe that Christians are true disciples and
that Jesus has been sent from God.
Conclusion
Just as an individual has a character, so an institution has a
character. The question is, what should the character of the church be?
The apostle Paul answers that question. The church should be
characterized by corporate faith, corporate hope, and corporate love.
These three characteristics embody what it means for a group of people
to become corporately mature in Christ.
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