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The Body — The Glorious Church

To the Ephesians, Paul said that “…Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27). This is a most excellent part of Scripture, and worth constant reflection upon its significance, and especially does it deserve a reading if, at any time, we tend to minimize the importance of the church.

Some points worthy of our consideration are these:

1. Christ’s love for the church. If we are to have the mind of the Lord (Philippians 2:5), then we must, through study and application of what is learned to our lives, view things and value things as did He. The fact that the Lord loved the church immediately signals to all of us that if we propose to follow the Lord and be like him, we need to see the preciousness of the church as did He. Love for the church involves love of the brethren who make up the church, love for he who is the Head of the church, love of the Word that directs the church, and love for God who has provided the entire plan with our salvation in mind.
2. Christ’s love was a sacrificial love. “He gave himself for it.” When Paul gave warning to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, they were told that they had the obligation of feeding the church of God, “which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). Christ gave for the church, but to speak of his giving does not say enough: He have himself, to the shedding of his blood, to dying for the church. Small wonder, then, that when it comes to our rendering what we can, we are told to present ourselves as living sacrifices acceptable to God, and proving in our lives what is the good, perfect and acceptable will of God (Romans 12:1-2). And hear our Lord’s own statement: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33). Surely, when the Lord turns to you and to me, we have some sacrificing we can do in our continual and faithful response to God, and to the demands of the kingdom!
3. The Lord’s intent was that of a glorious body, having been cleansed by him, and remaining cleansed. Paul states that the church, the body, is presented to the Lord a glorious church, without spot, wrinkle of any like things — a church holy and without blemish. Very clearly, unfaithfulness in the lives of those who are members of the church is a spotting or blemishing of the Lord’s body. He cleansed it, and gave the instructions whereby the church is to remain cleansed, and we, the members, dirty-it-up. In virtually all communities where the saints meet, there are those whose lives are damaging to the work and influence of the church, and they thus stand in opposition to the work and purpose of the Lord himself.

But there has been more blemishing, in these late years, as the church has been shaken by liberalism. We sadly note the tendency of some to speak of the church in demeaning terms – to actually mock the idea of the Bible as our guide; to ridicule the idea of men seeking a return, always, to the New Testament order; to laugh at the nonsectarian plea, as if men had no choice except to be sectarian; and to deride the steps in the plan of salvation and worship according to the New Testament pattern. When we look into Ephesians 5, noting Christ’s love for the church, and seeing the desire he had in mind concerning that body, the ridicule of the church of the Lord hurts indeed! I hope that all readers will bear in mind that such ridicule does not come from such men as write for this paper. We think of the men who speak on such lectureships as those at Denton, Memphis, El Paso, Southwest in Austin, Brown Trail in Fort Worth and Shenandoah in San Antonio, etc. These are not those who mock divine things! We read of the most disparaging things being said of the Lord’s kingdom, but we do not read such from the type of men noted above. All of those men agree with the Lord’s estimation of the church given in Ephesians 5!

Christian Worker, January, 1989