The Church is God’s Temple

By Jeff Curtis

Sociologists say that the modern-day Western world is becoming extreme in its individualism. The individual’s neglect of community responsibilities appears to be accelerating. Civic groups have trouble attracting members, and public service in government is declining in popularity. People spend more and more time looking at screens on phones, computers and other electronic devices. Ironically, while the widespread use of “social media” brings people together in one way, it also isolates people from one another and reduces human interaction.

The church that Jesus built is much more than a community pf people who share a common confession of faith and commitment to a given way of life. Along with everything else that the church is, it is a social network. Like other institutions that depend on social involvement for existence, the church suffers when individualism results in isolation. Adaption to the spirit of the times is possible only to a degree. For example, evangelism often begins with an individualistic appeal; “Do you want to be saved?” some evangelists ask. “All you have to do is say the sinner’s prayer and let Jesus come into your heart.” Such an appeal would have sounded strange to Peter, Paul and other authors of the New Testament. Paul taught in the marketplaces and on street corners. He called on people to repent and to be baptized (Galatians 3:27). He told those who would listen that, following a public statement in faith in Christ and the Son of God and baptism into Christ, the Lord would add the saved to a body of people. Life with Christ means life in community, it means life in the church.

Being saved is more than a private, individual act to let Jesus into the heart. In addition to obeying the gospel, it is becoming part of a people – sharing with them, receiving encouragement from them, and being corrected by them. Each member gives and receives from a social network of people in the church.

The church at Corinth suffered to the degree that Christians in the city forgot they were members of one another. Collectively, they were the people of God, the temple of God. God lived in (indwelt) His temple. The apostle was bold enough to teach that no life in Christ was possible, no indwelling of Christ was possible, no indwelling of Christ could occur in the individual, until that person had been added by Christ to His body. The church flourishes or wanes, depending in the commitment of individuals to all who share faith.

A lecturer in a chemistry class once performed a demonstration one day that made a lasting impression on the class. He took a flask of glass. It looked ordinary. He explained that the glass had been hardened by a special technique. To prove his point, he used it as a hammer. He lifted it high with his hand, and drove a nail through two boards. After that, he lifted the flask, took a small metal shaving, and dropped it into the glass. It shattered into a thousand pieces. He took a broom and swept up the pieces. The class learned that blown glass containers that not cooled in the environmental way can be extremely hard on the outside yet fragile on the inside.

The demonstration shows that churches that are firm in teaching the truth and seemed able to withstand external pressures but were torn apart from within. A church can be strong as a hammer when it confronts external forces and still be vulnerable to internal attacks. The church at Corinth was breaking apart before Paul’s eyes – not because they had left the doctrines of Christ, but because “slivers” of selfishness, pride, and jealousy were shattering their fellowship from within.

Belonging to God

By Jeff Curtis

God gave a lengthy speech in Judges chapter 10 where He stresses the importance of loyalty in the people’s relationship with Him. Their idolatry had angered Him, prompting Him to speak to them in person, and almost caused Him to reject them completely, as He said, “Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen.”  The worship of false gods that supposedly provided fertility and agricultural bounty often tempted Israel to forsake the Lord.

Christians today don’t necessarily worship physical idols, but sensuality and prosperity continue to have their appeal. The sensual worship of Baal belonged to a culture of the past, but the commercialization of sex in today’s culture tempts even those who follow the Lord. The rich agricultural harvest promised by these ancient false gods is a feature of bygone days, but the consumer society that dominates much of the world has a strong appeal to people today.

In Judges 10:6-18 we see an invitation to all Christians to reexamine who they worship, who or what they serve, and what they dream about and seek in life.

⁶ Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him. ⁷ So the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon. ⁸ From that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for eighteen years—all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead. ⁹ Moreover the people of Ammon crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah also, against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed.

¹⁰ And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!”

¹¹ So the Lord said to the children of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the Philistines? ¹² Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. ¹³ Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore, I will deliver you no more. ¹⁴ “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.”

¹⁵ And the children of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray.” ¹⁶ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.

¹⁷ Then the people of Ammon gathered together and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled together and encamped in Mizpah. ¹⁸ And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin the fight against the people of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

When difficult times come, many people turn to the Lord for help. But the Lord demands continual loyalty, not just a cry to Him when they find themselves in distress. In a time of great need for divine guidance, no one would want the Lord to essentially say to them, “Go cry out to the gods which you have chosen.” Rather, we must serve the Lord with all our hearts, our souls, and all our might (Deut. 6:5) for all the days of our lives. He is with us in good times, but also in times of grief, sorrow and great need.