The Place for Relationships

Introduction

Community exists. God has already placed us in community. Community is active. We pursue relationships with each other. We pursue connection. We do not wait for someone to come to us, but we find ways to go to others. God created us for relationships. There is to be an active pursuit of encouragement with each other. Our assemblies focus more on passive presence than active encouragement. God wants us to encourage each other, not be passive observers. Tonight we continue with a lesson about the function of the church in terms of relationships.

Organization or Organism

Do you remember the TV theme song from “Cheers”? “Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.” You probably remember some of the characters. Norm, Sam, Woody, Cliff, and others spent time at the bar sipping beers, telling stories, sharing lives. What made the show work was the common belief that people are looking for a place to belong. They are searching for an environment where they can love and be loved. What the show focused on was relationships. Each one found that the bar was the place to find acceptance and connection.

When you think of the word “church” what comes to mind? Some think of a place to go for Bible study; some think of a business which must be marketed; some think of church as a social club. These views have one thing in common—church is an entity. It is an “it.” It is a place or a thing. We talk about “going to church” or “giving to the church” or “building a church,” but we don’t speak enough about us being the church. The church is a community of believers. There is an organizational element of the church, but the church is also living. The church may be an “it” at times, but the church is also alive.

The New Testament speaks of the church in organizational terms. 1 Corinthians speaks of the church as a worshiping entity. 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 speak of the church as an organizational entity. But the church is not exclusively an organization. When we focus on the organizational matters to the exclusion of the organism then we become doctrinally correct but deficient in relationships. The church is not strictly about budgets, programs, structure and teaching. The church is also about relationships. God’s vision of the church includes not only these things but things which can only take place in relationships. Things such as love, encouragement, fellowship, and support. The form of the church and the function of the church are equally important. The theology and the sociology of the church are vital. God is interested in how we relate to each other as well as the structure of leadership and worship.

The Church as Relational

Three images are used in scripture to describe the relational aspect of the church. First, the church is described as a body. In our text, the Corinthian church faced numerous challenges. At the core of the difficulty was the realization that they were a relationship place. They did not understand that the way they treated each other was as important as the purity of their morals or the quality of the worship. In fact, according to chapter 11 it is their failure to recognize that they are the body of Christ that is leading them to profane the name of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper. Paul in chapter 12 presents an image of the body which is intended to change the way they think about each other. The text doesn’t end with verse 20. In verse 27, just to make sure there is no misunderstanding, Paul says we “are the body of Christ.” Not like a body, not similar to a body, but we are the body of Christ.

Our definition comes from what is declared about us. Paul addresses that issue in verses 15-16. We can try to pretend that we are not part of the body. We can be mad because we aren’t a different part of the body. We can be upset because the body isn’t the way we want it to be, but none of those complaints changes that God says we are part of the body of Christ.

None of us would intentionally harm our body. We would not cut off our thumb because we didn’t like it. Such an act would result in a deficit for the body. Being part of the body means that we take care of each other and we consider each other as an extension of ourselves.

This term “body” stresses the relational component of the church. Not structure but relationship. According to Paul the church is an interconnected organism in which its members depend on each other.

The second image is that of the church as family. The words “brother” and “sister” are not used as much these days. But there is no doubt that God’s intent was for his church to be a family. Jesus in Matthew 12 left little doubt that those who heard his voice were tied to him closer than his own earthly family. There are several texts which use the word “family” to describe the church. In 2 Peter 1:7, Peter says that we are to treat each other with brotherly affection. In Galatians 6:10, Paul says that we are to do good to all people but especially to those who belong to the family of believers. In Ephesians 2:19 he welcomes the Gentiles in the church with the words that they are now members of God’s household or family. In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul instructs Timothy how people are to conduct themselves in God’s family. We are challenged to go beyond structure and to see ourselves as family.

The third image is an overused image but one that nonetheless exists. It is the image of fellowship. The word implies a sharing with someone or sharing in something. It is not a word to use in isolation. And while it may include eating, it does not mean eating together. It is a relationship word. It describes closeness between individuals. John in 1 John 1:3 begins his first epistle with the word “fellowship.” It was important for him to establish the boundaries of fellowship with each other and with God. Fellowship cannot be limited to structural matters. Fellowship is a relationship term used to define belonging not because of skill or personality but because one is a child of God. When we think of the church as a fellowship then we are using a relational term.

Application

So what does all of this mean? The church is both structural and relational. The church is both an organization and an organism. First, striking a balance between the two is a challenge. The structure and organization part is more easily measured than the relational and organism part. We can check off when we are structured correctly and organized well, but measuring the relational is far more difficult. The point is that we must make a conscious effort to encourage the relational. That isn’t a proposal for a program but it is a suggestion to look at our assembly structure to see if we not only have the organization organized but the relational relating. Our discomfort in altering traditions or encouraging the relational in our assembly is no excuse for carrying out God’s intent for his church.

Second, the fact that the New Testament writers had to write in such a way as to remind readers of what they were as God’s church tells me that we aren’t the first to struggle with the relational aspect of the church. Sometimes we have a utopian mentality that the early church had things together; that they succeeded in the relational. They didn’t in Corinth; they didn’t in Ephesus; and the church in Rome struggled with Jew and Gentile jealousy. The struggle will be present for a variety of reasons. Knowing that the struggle is common means that again we must be conscious in making changes to encourage the relational.

Over the next several weeks we are going to be looking at love and what it means to love one another. We have finished laying the foundation and now will move quickly in looking at how we can develop relationships which honor, encourage, and sustain each other.

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