The Local Church - Part 2

Problems In the Local Church

Paul opens the letter to the churches of Galatia with a warm greeting.

"Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen." Galatians 1:1-5

He closes the letter with more caring words.

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen." Galatians 6:18

Obviously, Paul loved the recipients of his letter.

As you know, however, Paul wrote the book of Galatians to counter a false teaching this church was disseminating. Some in the church were teaching that Gentiles had to become Jews first, thus minimizing the doctrine of justification by faith. This was a church that Paul had helped establish. Paul, one of the twelve apostles! Yet, he wrote lovingly, although sarcastically direct at times, and still considered them as the church of Galatia.

What about before that? What about the church written of in Acts?

"Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith." Acts 6:1-7

As Frank Turk says:

“And there are other examples in Acts – Acts, people! The first 30 years of the church! Think about the council at Jerusalem (isn’t eating meat offered to idols idolatry?), or the controversy over Paul's conversion (can we let a man who was a murderer and a blasphemer evangelize gentiles?), or the controversy over evangelizing gentiles (has Peter lost it? These people are unclean!). And the one example where two church guys separate in a tiff – Paul and Barnabas (Barnabas who was his only friend to start with; Paul the guy writing the NT through the Holy Spirit) – we can deduce from the rest of Paul's writings that he regretting this in the end, and thought he did wrong by Barnabas and Mark.

None of these things caused splits in the church – and even worse things, like the Galatian controversy, or what was going on in Corinth after Paul established that church, were not subject to the admonition, "brethren dude: get out of Dodge. That place has gone belly-up."

The admonition is stay and contend for the truth with the whole Gospel, both doctrine and life. And if we are honest with ourselves, that's the admonition we receive in Scripture about our lousy churches in America and we ignore it…”

Paul is not writing or speaking of the universal church but the local church, we know that because he tells us which local church. The local church has had, and will continue to have, problems.

Consider Paul writing to Timothy. Once again, from Frank Turk:

“…as Paul writes, we find some very troubling things in his words. All of Asia, he says, has forsaken him for false teachers; Demas has decided that the world looks pretty good and the Gospel not so much. So in that environment, you'd think Paul would give Timothy the advice any wise man would give: run away from the bad guys and go find someplace else to start a new church – because we have to run away from false teachers, and a church with false teachers is a church where it is necessary to leave.

You'd think.”

But then look at these references from Paul's letter to Timothy:

"Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." 2 Timothy 2:14-19

"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will." 2 Timothy 2:22-26

"I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and [they] will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." 2 Timothy 4:1-5

As Mr. Turk says once again:

"See: Paul didn't tell Timothy, "dude, my method landed me in jail, so you have to try something different. Check with Demas as he has found a nice job in the world -- obviously he knows something I don't." He told Timothy to not change and not adapt and not go his own way, but instead to "endure suffering" and "continue in what you have learned" and "depart from iniquity" and so on -- but not to leave the church."

It seems apparent that just because there is error in the church that doesn’t mean, necessarily, that we should leave. It seems that the Bible admonishes us to stay fixed on Jesus. We are to emulate Him who loves those that are perhaps, less than faithful and loving. If we can’t do it inside the church why do we think we can love those outside the church?

What does perseverance, mercy and love look like in a church setting? How did we contribute to the problem? Do we think of ourselves as one of the truly Godly and faithful but the others aren’t? That thought brings with it a whole host of other problems. Assuming we are, however, then how is that problem going to be fixed if we leave?

Are we, as Thabbiti Anyabwile writes, healthy church members ourselves:

A healthy church member is an expositional listener.
A healthy church member is a biblical theologian.
A healthy church member is gospel Saturated.
A healthy church member is genuinely converted.
A healthy church member is a biblical evangelist.
A healthy church member is a committed member.
A healthy church member seeks discipline.
A healthy church member is a growing disciple.
A healthy church member is a humble follower.
A healthy church member is a prayer warrior.

So we know the importance of the church and the fact that the church will always have problems - until His glorious return. Where then do we draw the line? At what point is “church shopping” acceptable?

(I rarely have an original idea. This post is without a doubt derivative of Mr. Turk's. I suggest you read all the articles written on this subject from him, as linked above.)