The Churches in Christ

“The Churches of Judea which were IN Christ.” — Gal. i. 22. “In whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple IN the Lord.” — Eph. ii. 21.

p^lT a previous meditation we noted the Apostle’s fervent salutations to individual believers in Christ. The object of his life and ministry was “to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. i. 28).

Under our present mottoverses we may regard him speaking to, and of, believers in their collective capacity; — Churches, and groups of Churches. We are reminded of the beautiful symbol of the Great Prophet, as he saw in the Messianic age, flocks of doves, varied it may be in their plumage, speeding, with fleet wings to the window of the true Ark; safe IN Christ “from the windy storm and tempest” (Isa. Ix. 8). Or the still more apposite figure, employed by the Redeemer Himself, to which we have previously adverted, when not only does He speak of the individual members of His flock, (calling His own (separate) sheep by name and, one by one, “leading them out “), but also referring to them in the aggregate. They constitute, though with divers folds and many under-shepherds, one great flock — reposing in the green pastures and by the ’ waters of comfort,’ under Himself, the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls.

The earliest in chronological order of all St. Paul’s letters is the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, It is interesting surely to read its opening sentence, which in a sense may be regarded as the exordium or prologue of his whole series of inspired communications to the Church and Churches of the future. Thus it runs — “Unto the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and m the Lord Jesus Christ” (i Thess. i. i). His subsequent salutations and addresses to believers in this their corporate form, however varied be the figures and symbolism employed, combine in giving the main features in the Apostle’s ideal of a true heaven-born Church, viz., that it is not only living, but inspired with life m Christ. All Church-life is traced up to the Great Life- Giver. The laurel- wreath of the Apostle’s own spiritual victories, in these different Churches he had planted, he lays at the feet of his Great Redeemer — “Are not ye my work in the Lord;” “The seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord” (i Cor. ix. i, 2). “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. ii. 21). Even when he chal-G lenges respect and sympathy for his fellow-labourers, he thus recals the secret of success, by reminding of the golden link which binds the servants of the one household of faith to the Heavenly Master — “And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you IN the Lord” (i Thess. V. 12). In the words of Archbishop Leighton, as he enlarges on one of the above — “The whole building is Christ mystical; Christ together with the whole body of the elect. He as the foundation, they as the stones built upon Him. He the living Stone, and they, by union with Him, living stones. He having life in Himself, and they deriving it from Him. He primitively living, and they by participation.” In Christ! — the Church throughout all the world has in this the alone pledge and guarantee of its stability and permanence. In Christ! — He walks in the midst of His seven golden candlesticks, and has the stars in His right hand (Rev. i. 13, 1 6), feeding every candlestick with the oil of His grace, and keeping every luminary in its sphere in the spiritual firmament. ‘In Him’ the bush cannot be consumed. As good Samuel Rutherford quaintly expresses it — “That bush has been burning these five thousand years, but no man yet saw the ashes of that fire.” Very significant are the Apostle’s own words, as he seeks, under the most endearing of human emblems, to set forth the intensity of the Lord’s attachment to His Church — “No man ever yet hated his ownjlesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church” (Eph. v. 29). When the divine Head of that Church Himself (employing a different figure) declares that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. xvi. 1 8): how shall they not prevail? Just because it is IN Him. “On this Rock (Immutable, Immovable) will I build My Church.” To destroy and engulph the cargo, you must first wreck the all-glorious Vessel which bears it. The Church collectively is so dear to Him, that it is spoken of in words we shall in a future chapter more particularly consider — as His very * body,’ — “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all” (Eph. i. 23). There are other things — other realms which contribute to that fulness. “On His head are many crowns.” He wields creation’s sceptre — The worlds were created “by Him and for Him.” The light is His garment; the clouds are His chariot; the stars of heaven are a tiara for His brow. But He is “Head over all things to the Church” (Eph. i. 22). All other provinces of His vast empire are subordinated to this. If the material universe be His Temple, the Church is the Shekinah. If

the one be the outer Court, the other is the Adytum, — the “Holy of holies.” He is Lord over angels, — magnified, and lauded, and glorified by them. But even to these “principalities and powers in heavenly places is made known by the Chuech the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. iii. 10). “Unto Him,” is the Apostle’s doxology in closing the most beautiful of his recorded prayers —” Unto Him be glory in the Church in Christ lOO IN CHRISTO.

Jesus throughout all ages, world without end” (Eph. iii. 2 1 ). If such, then, be His present interest in His Church, and such her own predestined glory, we may safely commit the steering of the vessel of salvation to the heavenly Pilot. Despite of winds, and tides, and adverse currents. He will ensure that she will ride out the storm, and reef her sails in peace in the quiet haven.

“In Christ!” we may well write underneath the Pauline motto, words, which, as we have seen in our Preface, were wont to be traced in rude symbolism but with loving faith over the catacombed dead — “We have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Heb. vi.

18,19).

One other thought urgently suggests itself. If churches were to realise, more habitually and fully than they do, the sacredness of that golden link — “in Christ” — (the superlative glory, yes, and responsibility of their mystical union with the Great Head), might we not prayerfully look and long for the removal of all unworthy jealousies and acerbities. How would the thought, how ought the thought, of “one IN Him,” — to hush the din of rival faction and angry recrimination; shame into silence hard thoughts and hard

* iv (in) in the original, not “by” as in our version.

THE CHURCHES IN CHRIST. loi

names; banish from the reh’gious vocabulary such a word as ‘toleration:* — Christians tolerating Christians. Churches tolerating Churches. Strange paralogism of language! arming alike the British scoffer, and the Hindoo idolater, with a keen weapon of assault against “the truth as it is in Jesus.” In Christ, ought to be the death-blow to religious party. The nearer His people are in Him, whether in their individual or corporate capacity, the nearer they will be to one another. It is because of their distance from the central Sun that they move in such wide and devious orbits. As it is expressed by a thoughtful Christian of recent times — “The different modes in which different and differing people desire to do God’s will are as lines converging to a common centre. When the true-hearted meet in the centre, in the real knowledge and love of God, the distance of the varied lines from each other has vanished away, and all is one.” “The Christian hope is common to them that are Christians, in which they all unite and meet; whereas, in reference to the hopes of other men, there is no such thing as a centre in which their hopes may unite and meet, and so they lie scattered. All the hopes of Christians do run into one hope.”

“What,” it has been well said by yet another master in Israel,” what were the letters of this man in Christ to the Churches, but proclamations of peace,

“Memorials of a Quiet Life.” ‘Flavel.

edicts from the throne of Love, commanding Christians as they valued the Royal favour of the King of Saints, and hoped for a crown above, to love one another.”

The day is at all events promised, when “in sweet fellowship beyond the stream” we shall all come “in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. iv. 1 3). Then, at least, the realisation and consummation of this longed-for Church fellowship will be ensured. The Church of the present economy, as observed in a previous page, may, in a mingled, imperfect state (and that with no breach of true unity) be composed of varied folds, though one flock. But in ’ the pastures of the blessed,’ even this divergence will cease. The earthly fold will be no longer needed to protect from prowling robber and beast of prey. “The ransomed of the Lord,” united, glorified, will gather in eternal harmony on the golden meadows of heaven. Here, the varied portions of the wide universal Church are like the briny pools of water on the seashore. There is no incongruity in their remaining separate and apart: each wdth its own distinctive and accidental conformation of rock and shingle, sand and seaweed. But when the mighty tide of heavenly glory — the waves of the

1 Dr. Harris. Chrysostom remarks that the “name of Christ is oftener mentioned in ist Corinthians than in any other Epistle. The Apostle thereby designing to draw them away from their party admiration of particular teachers to Christ alone.” eternal ocean of Divine love sweep over, “all shall be one!” — no trace of separation will remain. The amalgamation will be complete. “One m Christ!” will be the boom of the everlasting surge of that unebbing sea. And the Apostle’s own words will have their best and only true fulfilment — “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus!”