The church is a concept/entity that today is as muddled in the minds of many as perhaps any other subject. To properly scope the term from a Biblical perspective will challenge many of the thoughts and ideas that are common today. While the Bible uses the term to describe different things – sometimes as all the family of God, a local assembly, etc. – this writing will only be talking about the church from a local, called-out assembly as part of a larger order of people who follow the same tenets and doctrines coupled with proper order in their worship. That group of people has been known by many names down through the centuries, but I believe with all my heart that the people today who follow in that fashion are known as Primitive Baptists. This is not said with any measure of pride but with thanksgiving in my soul that the people I identify with are following the tenets of the Bible in belief, practice, and connection through succession.
Prescription: Many of the problems that the church has endured which led to splits or other types of divisions came in the name of “progress.” The church was being given a “better” way to follow. With the church being full of broken people, it is understandable that improvements should be made, but these problems down through the ages focused the improvement in the wrong place: looking at the doctrine and order rather than personal decorum. The prescription that the Lord gave to the church at her inception is a perfect prescription. Perfect for all times and all ages. As Jude writes, the faith was “once” delivered to the saints. (Jude 3) No updates, improvements, or corrections needed. The doctrines of grace were good for the time then present and just as good today, and they will be just as good for tomorrow. The order of worship of “spirit and truth” (John 4:24) was good for the time that Christ said it to the Samaritan woman and just as good today. Singing with grace in our hearts making melody to the Lord and speaking to one another in such as fashion is good for all ages. (Ephesians 5:19) His house is still the house of prayer today. All of these elements are perfect in their transmission to us, and our labor is to fill them as perfectly as we can in these mortal frames.
Person: Since we are in mortal frames, the improvements that should come in a church sense is less about what the church adheres to but how we adhere to it. No sound, able minister would dare to claim that any sermon they ever delivered was “just right.” Personally, I spend a lot of time repairing and deconstructing my sermons. Even when a song service is rich and mighty, we can look back and see wandering moments, and our prayers are many times invaded by wayward thoughts and ill-effecting emotion. Reading and studying God’s word is a life-long endeavor and improvements to how much we study, how we study, and giving more of ourselves to the word of God can be improved from week to week and year by year. While we have never conducted ourselves perfectly in God’s house, I thank God that we have a perfect form to shoot and strive for.
Look: One of the main questions that people ask when you tell them that you are a Primitive Baptist is something about what is there for the children, what programs we have, etc. People today are looking for functions to follow after rather that what their function is for the church. They are looking to be served rather than serve. The church is described Biblically as being a body and a bride. Therefore, when a body assembles, it should be complete, entire, and beautifully adorned. No husband wants “part” of his bride, and Christ’s desire when meeting with His bride in service is for all of her together. In the Old Testament, the congregation or assembly was done by tribe in totality. There were not divisions for age, gender, etc. So in the New Testament, when the body assembles, the parts should be complete and entire with their various talents being displayed for the benefit of the body and the joy and pleasure of our Husband. As I Corinthians 12 talks about various body parts, it’s less important what body part you are as it is how good you are in that part. If you are a finger, be the best finger you can be. If you are a toe, likewise. As Jesus told Peter, don’t worry about what John will do, follow me. (John 21) Let us concern ourselves with filling our function to our utmost so that the body can go together in harmony in walking with our precious Beloved.
Most people today do not get up in arms if you tell them that the group of people you belong to is the church. They will get up in arms if you tell them the group of people they belong to are not the church. Isaiah 4:1 tells us about a group of women that laid hold upon one man desiring his name. However, they didn’t want anything else from him – no food or apparel. To properly bear the name of the bride of Christ, we must eat His food (doctrine) and wear His apparel (practice) to show forth His care over us. If people saw my wife, walking in a way that she lived apart from me, took care of herself, etc. but still wore my name, people would wonder what kind of marriage we really had. However, if we live together under the same roof, eat together, walk together, etc., our marriage would be seen as normal. So it MUST be with the church of God. We must live with Him having things in common with Him. Our dependence truly is in Him, but our acknowledgement of that shows a bride living with her Husband in the proper way.