THEME:   UNDERSTANDING CHURCH LIFE 

LESSON: THREE 

TEXT:      Acts 2:40-47, Eph 4:1-7 

INTRODUCTION 

Last week, we looked at the authority of the Church being a serious thing. It is a fearful thing to take the Church, the congregation of the righteous, the Body of Christ, for granted. It is to leave with us fear and reverence within our hearts as we desire to live a church life. 

Today, we will be looking at the community life of the Church. This community is not a forced one, i.e. by law, as we have in human government. It is spontaneous and at the same time voluntary. It is spontaneous because it comes from a deep conviction within us, springing from our spirit. It is also voluntary because we have to willingly choose to yield to the flow of such life from within us, or we can hinder it and we lose the blessing of koinonia. 

A forced community life is communism; that is human effort and will result to spreading more death. We are concerned with something deeper than human ideology. 

COMMUNITY LIFE; AN EXPRESSION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD 

An understanding of the basic concept of the Kingdom of God will give insight into the community life of the Church. 

  • We are called out of our earthly tongues, tribes, nation and people to become a new tongue, a new tribe in the Spirit, a new nation to express God, and a new people for God to dwell in our midst. 
  • We are called out through the regeneration of our spirit. Every expression of fellowship wells from the new birth. It is not a soulish thing, though our souls are brought in, but it is initiated from our spirit. The kingdom of God is in us from where this expression issues out from 
  • We are called a royal priesthood, a holy nation set apart for God. In other words, what the true expression of the kingdom is, is a kingdom of priests. 
  • We have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son which is the kingdom of light. The kingdom of darkness is an expression of dead spirits of man and whatsoever that physical kingdom is established upon is further darkness. 

LIVING A COMMUNITY LIFE AGAINST INDIVIDUALISM (‘…they all had all things in common’) 

The world has an ideology upon which darkness within man has found expression. Socialism, communism, capitalism, democracy, autocracy, monarchy and even individualism that are being preached by the spirit of antichrist in our generation are all expressions of darkness. Something more than ideology holds the community of saints. It is called ‘UNITY OF THE SPIRIT’. This implies; 

  • This unity is not of man nor originated from any human ideology. 
  • The unity is beyond man, that is to say, that the unity is already existing in the Spirit. It is a spiritual reality. 
  • We are bound together in our spirit, the unity is not what we are trying to achieve. It is a work which we cannot personally articulate.
    • Spiritual unity will be a norm within the Church when members live under the control of the Holy 

Spirit. 

  • Unity of the spirit is at the very heart of Christian faith and the Church life. 
  • It is therefore a very serious matter to cause division among God’s people. It is a grievous sin against the Body. 

SUBSTANCES OF THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT (Eph 4:4-6) 

Looking at these substances, we see that they are all of God. The key word here is ‘one’ as God is One, implying that the source of this unity is God and the substances are also from Him. 

  • One Body (Rom 12:5): Though we be many but we are one Body in the Spirit. It is a condition in the Spirit that is more real than anything we can think of. 
  • One Spirit: We all who have received Christ have received one Spirit (Christ). He is not divided. 
  • One Hope of your Calling: We all are also called to the same hope of being formed into the image of Christ. 
  • One Lord: Jesus Christ is the Lord over the Church, no other Lord can be. 
  • One Faith: The faith referred to here is the faith of the Son of God which is also called ‘like precious 

faith’ 

  • One Baptism: We were all baptized into Christ by the Spirit of God. 
  • One God: We have only one God who is the Father of us all, who is above all, who works through us, and lives in us all. 

THINGS THAT HINDER CHURCH LIFE 

As far as the Lord is concerned, there is unity already. This unity is not what we are trying to achieve by living church life, rather, we are obeying the Lord by living out what is already a reality in the Spirit. On the Lord’s side, there is a perfect unity already existing in our spirit, but on our own side, there is an aspect of us that is admonished to endeavor to keep this unity in the bond of peace by living the church life. That aspect of us (our soul) can hinder church life not unity of the Spirit. 

  1. Unrenewed Mind: Our mind is one of the major aspects of our souls. When it is not renewed by the knowledge of God through leading and dealing, it is ignorant of God’s will, and will promote selfseeking, rebellion, individualism and so many ideas that will hinder church life. 
  2. Darkened Heart: Our heart, which is also a major part of our soul, can be darkened. This simply means absence of light of God’s word to the extent that our interpretation of life is according to the old man. 
  3. Evil Conscience: This is the witness of God in our soul, which can be weak, dead, seared with hot iron, making it not respond in witness to light; it has to be sprinkled. 

CONCLUSION 

In our spirit, the unity already exists which we (our souls) are encouraged to keep in the bond of peace, by obeying God and walking in love and preferring one another.