GLEANINGS — November 16, A.D. 2014                                                                                                               Why Church Membership?

It is crucial to keep in mind the unity of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible when addressing this or any other question about discipleship or doctrine. The Holy Spirit Himself inspired God's word through many men over many years (Hebrews 1:1) resulting in the unified and coherent canon of Scripture.

The people of God are also a unity; one body. Most of us have lived, are alive, or will live after the resurrection of Christ. We who live under the new covenant of fulfillment can be distinguished in a helpful way from national Israel as it existed in the B.C. centuries, under the old covenant of promise. Yet the one church catholic includes all God's elect of the past, present, and future. Ancient Israel was the church of Christ in its infancy. All who are of faith are children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7, 9, 14).

So when we consider Old Testament censuses, geneologies, and other records concerning the tribes of Israel, we are looking at church membership rolls, often listed according to male heads of families! In the books of Ezra (2:62) and Nehemiah (7:64) geneologies were used to determine whether or not certain men among those returned from the Babylonian captivity were eligible for the priesthood.

When we come to the New Testament, we find Paul writing (1 Timothy 5:9) about a definite list or registry of qualified widows eligible for assistance. The ability of the early congregation to "choose out from among themselves" certain men to be ordained to church office with the laying on of hands (Acts 6:3) surely implies that those able to share in the choosing out process were known to the apostles and to one another. Similarly, in Hebrews 13 we have three direct references (vss. 7, 17, and 24) to "those who rule over you." It is unreasonable to believe that those who bore the responsibility of rule and the rest of the flock of Christ were not publicly recognized by one another. 

In 1 Peter 5 and of course throughout the pastoral epistles (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus) we find detailed instructions to help us fulfill the injunction of 1 Corinthians 14:40, that all things are to be done decently and in order. The epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians are addressed to visible, local congregations in specific towns, as are the seven letters from the risen Christ to the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3. That is, the recipients knew who belonged to their number and who did not.

So there is a God ordained structure and government for the congregations of His church. Every member of the heavenly Father's family, every disciple of the Lord Jesus, every living stone in the dwelling place of God in the Spirit should be visibly, publicly united to a local congregation. The Bible knows nothing of unaccountable, "maverick" Christians. Union with Christ cannot be dissociated from union with His people. Church membership rolls do not create the spiritual unity, but are a fruit of it, and an evidence of good discipline and order; a sign of a true church.

Shortly after the choosing out of officers in Acts 6, we see an early church council (synod or presbytery type meeting) at work in Acts 15. The apostles and other elders gather to consider an issue that had arisen among the brethren. After much dispute (vs. 7), Scriptural reasoning by the apostles Peter and James, and testimony from Barnabas and Saul (the apostle Paul), the council comes to be of one accord, and writes an authoritative letter to the predominantly Gentile membership of the congregations of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, settling the dispute. The Holy Spirit Himself approves the ruling, vs. 28.

Since then, when Biblically ordained elders rule faithfully according to the word of God, their rulings bear Christ's authority as well. Church government, including formal membership, is no trifle.