Acts 2:47 Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. I. IT SEEMS ALMOST INEVITABLE THAT ALL BELIEVING MEN WILL AS A MATTER OF COURSE ASSOCIATE THEMSELVES WITH THE CHURCH. 1. This is prompted by the very nature and fitness of things. (1) It is the moral duty of every individual to give society an account of his convictions. No man is perfectly sincere to his fellows except as his whole life — his thoughts as well as his conduct — is open to their inspection. Respect for his fellow-men, himself and his God alike demand this. Therefore not to do this in matters of religious conviction is to withhold from society that to which it has a moral claim, for religious belief lies at the foundation of all moral conduct; and therefore of all social confidence. To profess to belong to society, and yet conceal our religious principles is a moral fraud. (2) An evasion of religious profession does as much wrong to the spiritual life of the believer as it does to the community. He does as much violence to his spiritual nature as he would to his social nature were he to become a recluse. Such separation renders the development of one's entire nature impossible — social instincts, sympathies and capabilities. And just as the domestic feeling finds development in the family, the mercantile in the company, the political in the club, so the religious feeling finds its proper development in the Church. Standing aloof, therefore, our personal piety must suffer, wanting that mutual encouragement and help that it requires. For the Church is "the garden of the Lord" — the place of rapid and healthy growth. "They that be planted in the house of the Lord," etc. Standing aloof from our fellow Christians, moreover, there is a large class of holy and beautiful feelings that are never called into exercise. It is as if the members of a family were to live separate — the tie of relationship would be the same, and the affection might be in their hearts, but it would find but imperfect expression in the life. (3) Church association is, moreover, needful for the advantageous application of spiritual power. The units are added into one sum; the drops collected into one stream; the strands twisted into one cable; the parts "fitly framed together" into one potent engine. What separated believers cannot do the Church easily can. For other purposes, the advancement of literature, science, commerce, etc., men spontaneously unite, and so should believers in the work of God. For each Christian to do "what is right in his own eyes" is as if soldiers were to disperse themselves through a country for the purpose of subduing it. (4) One prime part of the practical expression of religious principle is in public worship. God will have His people render Him sanctuary service — the chief way in which the "profession of Christ" is to be made. We might be pious without it, but our piety would be to ourselves, not to the world. 2. This natural necessity of the Church is further insisted upon in the New Testament. The injunctions of Christ and His apostles are not mere arbitrary directions, but recognitions of our spiritual nature. We have passages — (1) Recognising the Church as a legitimate fact. "Tell it to the Church," "They assembled with the Church," etc. (2) Of injunction, expostulation and promise. "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves," "These be they who separate themselves," "Where two or three are gathered in My name."(3) Where the necessity of professing Christ (of which Church membership is the chief way) is insisted on. We are to "come out and be separate," to "confess the name of the Lord Jesus." So imperative was this that the early Christians submitted to persecution for the maintenance of it. Half the martyrdoms of the Church might have been avoided had Christians been content with an isolated religion. And the great solicitude of the apostle in writing to persecuted believers is that they should "hold fast their profession without wavering." II. WHAT DOES THE CHURCH REQUIRE OF THE INDIVIDUAL AS A CONDITION OF ITS COMMUNION? Ver. 42 embodies the natural principles of associated Christian life, and St. Luke distinctly traces the passage of the individual to the social Christian life. Membership with Christ first, then membership with His Church. All social life is made up of individual lives — each member enters as an individual not to receive life from it, but to add life to it. The spiritual life of the Church, therefore, is the sum of individual lives. In none of our relationships can we lose our individuality. As individuals we are born, live, die, and give account of ourselves to God. Of the individual, therefore, the Church may require — 1. Moral conversion. A purely spiritual society can admit none but spiritual members; and can include none that are unregenerate. Of course the Church has not omniscience, but it is bound to exercise the most vigilant jealousy. And it cannot receive a more deadly injury than an unsanctified member. A society is worth no more than it possesses of the quality for which it exists. A scientific society, whatever other qualities its members may have, is worth no more, as such, than it has science. And so the Church is worth no more than the spiritual life that is in it. Wealth, intellect, energy, are of incalculable value, if their possessor bring spiritual life also, but they are a curse if he do not. Hence the Church is invested with the power of discipline, like all social bodies, and therefore St. Paul censured the Corinthian Church for not excommunicating the incestuous person. Christian churches must be churches of Christians. 2. Intellectual agreement with its distinctive ecclesiastical principles. An Episcopalian, e.g., cannot and ought not to be allowed to take part in a Congregational administration. His membership would involve either a tacit denial of principle on his part or an exposure to constant embarrassment on the part of the Church. While we welcome him to all our spiritual privileges, we must deny him participation in our government. 3. Active and cordial co-operation in religious functions — participation in worship, communion and service. Every member, therefore, enters into a moral contract with the Church, and as far as he holds aloof is as dishonest as a mercantile servant who absents himself from his occupation. Of course we claim no legal hold, and can use no compulsion, and would not if we could. But these are the lowest constraints, and Christianity refuses to employ them. But if you will not discharge its duties the Church has a right to ask you to withdraw from a fellowship to whose enjoyment and efficacy you add nothing. III. THE CLAIM OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE CHURCH. He may expect not the extinction on the part of its members of social rank, nor the sacrifice of individual claims. Membership warrants no rude familiarity, establishes no social equality. But Church members, though not one in rank or wealth, are yet one in Christ, and each in his spiritual and temporal need may expect such help as Christian brotherhood may prompt in his sorrows, brotherly interest and sympathy; in his assaults or perils, brotherly assistance and rescue; all that is involved in the great law, that we "love one another." (H. Allon, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. |
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