Weekly Pursuit – Week 4 of October
Verses:
Rom. 12:2 “And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.”
Excerpts:
Concerning the original condition of the church, we can look at some important points related to the testimony and the ground of the church so that through them we can know the church, including her principle, her constitution, and her ground.
One of the characteristics of the original church was that there was no hierarchy among the saved ones. They were all members one of another, coordinating mutually and serving together. Second, all the believers are members of the Body of Christ; as such, they coordinate with each other on an equal level, and each of them fulfills his particular function. Third, all the believers are priests to God. In the Old Testament, among the people of Israel there was a group who served as priests, and the rest of the Israelites were common people. But in the New Testament, in the church, there is no longer such an intermediary class. The normal condition is for all the people of God to be priests to Him.
Another marked feature of the early church was that it was completely separated from the world; it was in the world but not of the world. Whereas idols are adversaries of God, the church is the testimony of God. If the church has idols, the nature of the church has been changed. From Acts 15:29 we can see that the original church forsook idols in a very thorough way. In the original church there was no human opinion and no human system; instead, the believers completely allowed the Spirit to speak through the Scriptures. They allowed the Holy Scriptures of God to have their position, and they also allowed the Holy Spirit of God to have His position. (The Testimony and the Ground of the Church, pp. 187, 191-193, 195)
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