Lesson 83 · Unit 13 · The Body of Christ
Committed - From Guest to Family
The church is not a place you browse. It is a body you grow into.
Open
Half past ten on a Sunday morning, and you are still in bed. Three live streams are open on your phone: one church with solid preaching, one with good worship, one a friend recommended. At one-point-five speed you "attend" all three and finish at eleven twenty, on the dot - more efficient than any service you could have driven to.
The moment you close the screen, something occurs to you: not one person on earth knows you went to church today. Nobody was waiting for you, nobody handed you a cup of water, and if you had skipped it, nobody would have noticed.
You heard three sermons and belonged to no body. Ephesians has two words for the difference.
Scripture
Paul is describing a change of status; Luke records what that status looks like once it touches the ground. (Ephesians 2:19-22, WEB)
19So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God,
20being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;
21in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
22in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
41Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.
42They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.
47praising God and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.
See
From guest to family, from spectator to stone
"Strangers and foreigners" is hotel language: stay a few nights, pay the bill, nobody owes anybody anything. "Fellow citizens" and "household" is registry language: you have a name, a place, responsibilities, and people who are answerable for how you are doing. Paul says that once you believed in Christ your status moved from the first to the second (Eph 2:19) - the trouble is that plenty of people change status and never change the way they live, still occupying God's house on hotel terms. Then he switches the picture: the church is a temple still under construction, Christ is the cornerstone, every believer is a stone, "fitted together" in him (2:21). A stone is only architecture once it is laid into the wall; propped up at the edge of the site, however handsome, it is still just material. That is exactly what happened to the three thousand at Pentecost: on the day of their baptism they "continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer" (Acts 2:42). And notice the verb "added": the Lord added them "to the assembly" ("assembly" is how this translation renders the word we usually read as "church"), day by day (2:47). In the Bible, being saved and joining up happen on the same day.
The shopping-around sickness
Maybe you are drifting between several churches right now: this one preaches well, that one has warmer people, and there might still be a better fit out there. Wanting a church that is sound is not a sin. But "I will commit once I find the perfect church" is a road with no end - and there is an honest old joke about it: if you ever do find the perfect church, the moment you join, it stops being perfect. Commitment is not signed with "perfect"; it is signed with "we grow together." As for online services: on a business trip, in a sickbed, under a lockdown, they are a real supply line of grace. But they cannot replace the church, because laying on hands takes hands, breaking bread takes a table, and "one another" takes two people who are both in the room. A church on a screen will never inconvenience you - and the definition of family is precisely people who are allowed to.
If you have been hurt, take it slowly
Maybe it is not that you will not commit; it is that you dare not - you were genuinely wounded in a church once. That wound is not you being thin-skinned, and the Lord has never made light of it (lesson 32 faced the hypocrites in the church head-on, and lesson 88 will deal with how a church ought to apologize and restore). You may change churches; there is no shame in that. Only do not swap out the church herself - because Christ has not swapped her out. As for the form membership takes, churches differ: some keep a formal roll, others count steady attendance and a commitment spoken face to face. That is a difference of church practice - take this lesson's passages and ask the pastors of the church you belong to.
Deeper
Fellow citizens and household (Eph 2:19)
salvation changes more than your destination; it changes your registration, from hotel guest to member of the family.
Cornerstone (Eph 2:20)
the first stone, which set the line and the level of an ancient building; the position of the whole temple is decided by Christ.
Fellowship (Acts 2:42)
*koinonia* in the original, a shared life - not the relationship of an audience that leaves when the lights come up.
Added (Acts 2:47)
the one doing the adding is the Lord; in the Bible, being saved and joining the body are the same event.
Story
Old Kang is a dental technician in Zhengzhou. In his first two years in the city he "surveyed" seven churches nearby: this one's preaching was shallow, that one's sound system was too loud, another was impossible to park at. Eventually he just watched the streams, and took better notes than anybody.
In the spring of his third year he was hospitalized with acute appendicitis, and the surgical consent form required a family member's signature. He scrolled his contacts top to bottom and discovered that after two years and several hundred sermons, there was not one brother he could call at midnight. The first Sunday after he was discharged he went back to the church closest to his flat - the one whose choir he had once found off-key - found a pastor and said, "I'm done shopping. Whatever you're short of here, count me in." These days he runs the sound desk - the very system he had complained was too loud. He says, "The church didn't become perfect. I stopped being a spectator and became a stone."
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1Ephesians 2:19 names two statuses - "foreigner" and "member of the household." Which one does your church life look more like right now? What small things give it away?
2Of the four things in Acts 2:42 - teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer - which do you take part in least? Why?
3If you have been hurt by a church: where is that wound right now? Who are you willing to let know about it?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
God who brought us out of being strangers and foreigners and into the house: thank you that you did not only forgive me, you gave me a family. I admit I often shop for a church the way I shop for a hotel - convenience, yes; responsibility, no. Take me down out of the stands and lay me into the wall. Heal what was wounded in me among people, and keep me from denying the temple you are building because of a few crooked stones. Let me have a name, a place and a share in your house. Amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 20 min
If you already have a church: this Sunday arrive fifteen minutes early and stay five minutes after, meet two members whose names you still cannot say, and write their names down. If you are still drifting between churches: go quiet, choose one, and tell God, "For the next three months I am putting down roots here."
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Every day this week pray one sentence for one specific person in your church - by name, not "everyone."
Memory verse · Ephesians 2:19
youarenolongerstrangersandforeigners,butyouarefellowcitizenswiththesaintsandofthehouseholdofGod.
Walk further
Lesson 19 on why we need the church, the three thousand brought home at Pentecost, what the word "church" originally meant, the theme of the church, and a prayer for the local church.