Church Membership


l[Eph. 4:4-5]---'There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are

called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one

baptism.'

What St. Paul here calls the body we call the Church. What is the

Church? It is the whole body of Christian people everywhere. In the

fullest sense it takes in all Christian people that have ever lived,

though most of them have been dead and forgotten for hundreds of

years. It takes in all Christian people that are now living in every

land on the face of the earth, speaking all manner of languages,

worshipping God through Christ with all manner of differences.

Unlike as they may be in the eyes of men, before God they are all

one body, bearing the one name of His only begotten Son. This is a

great thought---one that may well lift up the heart of every single

Christian. Poor or weak or despised as he may be, he is an equal

citizen of the mighty heavenly commonwealth; he is a member of

Christ's own Body. ' We being many are one body in Christ and every

one members one of another,' says Paul in Rom. xii. He repeats the

same more strongly in 1 Cor. xii., as in these words: ' As the body

is one, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized

into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or

free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.' ' Now ye

are the body of Christ, and members in particular.' And so all

through the chapter. But St. Paul's doctrine on this subject may be

seen best in his Epistle to the Ephesians, from which the text is

taken, and which is all more or less written about the Church, even

where the word itself does not appear. All through it he strives to

make us understand that we, many though we be, are one body, filled

with one Spirit, and that the true life which God gives us is one

which we share together.

If once the true feeling of being members of one body took

possession of our religion, what a change it would make in the

spirit of our every-day lives! Not only would it make us happier and

better men, because it would give strength and purity to our

religion---that of course is true---but much more than that is true.

Think how all our dealings with each other would be changed, if we

kept steadily before our minds that all our neighbors are members of

Christ's Body like ourselves. Think of the things which hold us

apart from each other now. Think how we are jealous of this man

because he has got something which we have not, how we hate another

because perhaps he has done us once some trifling harm, and how

perhaps we hate all his family for his sake. Think how often we look

on most those around us as rivals, almost as enemies, against whom

we fancy ourselves obliged to keep up a struggle. Think how we

secretly rejoice in the misfortune or mortifications of others, how

ready we are to think the worst when their conduct is in question,

how slow to put in a kindly word or lend a helping hand, unless it

be for some particular friend. We know the temptations, to all these

things. How natural it is to indulge in them. These temptations

would remain still, would still trouble us and distract us. But how

much easier it would be to resist them if we could learn to drown

all our favorite reasons for separation in the one feeling that we

are all alike members of the same Church, bound to forgive and

forget, bound to help and cherish, bound, in one word, to love.

In Christ, timothy.

maranatha



The Lord has given us the grace to reconcile the children to their Fathers

As One Body

  • We prepare for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb
  • Harvest the Fruit of the Latter Rain
  • Follow Him as the Army of the Lord into His Glory

Help To Prepare A Holy Bride!

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