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(continued from preceding page)
and may receive (Acts 11:30). Such a group
may collect funds (1 Cor. 16:2), pay wages (2 Cor. 11:8), care
for “widows indeed” (1 Tim. 5: 16). It is absurd to deny
that such a church is an “entity” or that it is “organized”
literally. It functions as an organic whole, requiring some form
of management (overseers), and servants (deacons) who act on
behalf of the whole (Rom. 16:1; Phil. 2:25; Col. 1:17).
 We
are a part of the body of Jesus Christ by virtue of our
obedience to Him, and the will of men cannot keep us out of that
universal church. But our relationship in the local church is
subject to the will and judgment of men. Jerusalem disciples
refused to accept Paul into their fellowship because they were
afraid of him (Acts 9:26-28). In Corinth, one was kept in the
local fellowship who should not have been allowed there (1 Cor.
5:1-f), and elsewhere some were “cast out of the church”
wrongfully (3 Jn. 9-10).
The
local church, as an organization, is a functional implement.
It is divinely authorized (see passages above) and appointed
(see Titus 1:5), as the means by which saints pool their efforts
and resources to accomplish divine purposes. It is brought into
existence by the will of saints, as its need is dictated by
circumstances of place and opportunity; and the importance of
such “together” activity is impressed upon us as a part of
faithfulness (Heb. 10:23-f). It may be viewed as the result
of faithfulness to the Lord, under given circumstances,
without being considered as the means of redemption nor as the
object or focal point for our faith.
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As
circumstances change, the local church may be discontinued
without affecting the life of the universal organism from which
it sprang. (We are assuming, of course, a situation where there
no longer exists a plurality of saints who could work as one.)
There is no spiritual life for an individual saint apart from
the organism (body) of Christ; but one’s spiritual life does
not depend upon the existence of a local organization. Barnabas
exhorted brethren to “cleave unto the Lord” NOT “unto the
church” (Acts 11:20, 21, 23).
With
the previously given definition of “organism” in mind; is my
relationship with another saint in Bur- net, Texas “governed
by our relation to the whole” local church in Burnet,
or “by our relation to the whole” universal body of Christ?
Of what “body” do we find our basic sphere of fellowship? To
what head must we mutually look for guidance? To what Vine must
we mutually cling in order to bear acceptable fruit? With no
desire nor intent to deprecate the importance of saints working
together in a local church. I must conclude that our work there
grows out of and is dependent upon our relationship in the Lord.
Our primary loyalty must be to Him. In fact, my lack of
faithfulness to the Head (Christ) may be valid reason for my
being expelled from the fellowship of the local church.
We
therefore conclude that while the universal church is permanent
— a figurative organism; the local church is an organizational
implement, dictated by circumstances, to be used by saints in
local collective functions.
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