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How To Succeed In The Christian Life
Lesson Six
by R. A. Torrey
Church Membership
The true church consists of all true believers, all who are united to Jesus Christ by a living faith in Him. In its outward organization at the present time, it is divided into numberless sects and local congregations, but in spite of these divisions, the true church is one. It has one Lord, Jesus Christ. It has one faith, faith in Him as Saviour, Divine Lord and only King; one baptism, the baptism in the one Spirit into the one body [Eph. 4:4, 5:1; 1 Cor. 12:13]. But each individual Christian needs fellowship with individual fellow believers. The outward expression of this fellowship is in membership in some organized body of believers. If we hold aloof from all organized churches, hoping thus to have broader fellowship with all believers belonging to all churches, we deceive ourselves. We will miss the helpfulness that comes from intimate union with some local congregation. I have known many well-meaning persons who have held aloof from membership in any specific organization, and I have never known a person who has done so whose own spiritual life has not suffered as a result.
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On the day of Pentecost, the three thousand who were converted were at once baptized and were added to the church [Acts 2:41, 47], and "They continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers." Their example is the one to follow. If you have really received Jesus Christ, hunt up as soon as possible some company of others who have received Jesus Christ and unite yourself with them.
In many communities, there may be no choice of churches, for there is only one. In other communities, one will be faced with the question, "With what body of believers shall I unite?" Do not waste your time looking for a perfect church. There is no perfect church. If you wait until you find a perfect church before you unite with any, you will unite with none, thus you will belong to a church in which you are the only member, and that is the most imperfect church of all. I would rather belong to the most imperfect Christian church I ever knew than not to belong to any church at all.
The local churches in Paul's days were very imperfect institutions. Let one read the epistles to the Corinthians and see how imperfect the church in Corinth was, how much evil was in it, and yet Paul never thought of advising any believer in Corinth to get out of this imperfect church. He did tell them to come out of heathenism, to come out of fellowship with infidels [1 Cor. 6:14-18], but not a word on coming out of he imperfect church in Corinth. He did tell the church in Corinth to separate from their membership certain persons whose lives were wrong [1 Cor. 5:11-12], but he did not tell the individual members of the church in Corinth to get out of the church because these persons had not yet been separated from their fellowship.
As you cannot find a perfect church, find the best church you can. Unite with a church that believes in the Bible and where they preach the Bible. Avoid churches where words are spoken openly or veiled that have a tendency to undermine your faith in the BIble as a reliable revelation from God Himself, the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice. Unite with a church where there is a spirit of prayer, where the prayer meetings are well kept up. Unite with a church that has a real active interest in the salvation of the lost, where young Christians are looked after and helped, where ministers and people have a love for the poor and outcast, a church that regards its mission in this world to be the same as the mission of Christ, "to seek and to save the lost."
As to denominational differences, other things being equal, unite with that denomination whose ideas of doctrine and of government and of the ordinances are most closely akin to your own. But it is better to unite with a live church of some other denomination than to unite with a dead church of your own. We live in a day when denominational differences are becoming ever less and less, and oftentimes they are of no practical consequences whatsoever; and one will often feel more at home in a church of some other denomination than in any accessible church of his own denomination. The things which divide the denominations are insignificant compared with the great fundamental truths and purposes and faith that unite them.
If you cannot find a church that agrees with the pattern set forth above, find the church that comes nearest to it. Go into that church and by prayer and by work try to bring that church as nearly as you can to the pattern of what you think a church of Christ ought to be. Do not waste your strength in criticism against either church or minister. Seek for what is good in the church and in the minister and do your best to strengthen it. Hold aloof firmly, though unobtrusively, from what is wrong and seek to correct it. Do not be discouraged if you cannot correct it in a day, a week, a month, or a year. Patient love and prayer and effort will tell in time. Drawing off by yourself and snarling and grumbling will do no good. They will simply make you and the truths for which you stand repulsive.
Feed Yourself Assignments
These assignments assume the student has completed the Feed Yourself course.
1. Memorize Matt. 16:18.
2. Look up in your Bible each Scripture reference mentioned in this lesson - even the ones that are quoted.
3. Read through 1 & 2 Cor. and note all the problems and solutions Paul points out.
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