Thoughts From Ephesians 2 - Part 6

  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.  Eph. 2:21,22

           Have you ever heard, "The church is a hospital for sinners"? Doesn't that seem like a defeatist attitude? Here Paul is saying that we are an organically growing temple rising from the ground, joined together in unity, built on the rock of Jesus Christ, standing on the shoulders of saints before us in which the God of the universe dwells. This assumes a few things.

        The Church should be visible. We should be known as Christ followers. We should be out there in the community serving, not just inward hiding out. My wife went to a book club in the new neighborhood for this express purpose. The 8 women were totally different from her, focused on wealth, standing in society, intellectual and career achievements and not Christ followers. When they shared around the circle what they did (they never discussed the book), she said I teach a lot at church, volunteer at the rescue ministry, cook for the homeless, and am CEO of our household, she was letting her light shine. She was being visible. My guess is that other Christians have attended in the past and found it not to be their scene, maybe once they saw the 6 bottles of wine, and retreated. She is going to keep going no matter how uncomfortable.

      Secondly, the Church should be Holy. I just saw a video on X of a football player praying with his "partner" of 2 years before each game on the sideline and how sweet that was. Who are they praying to? Christians don't have "partners". That's not God's design. That's not "Holy". "Holy" means "other". We are other than the world. The world acts one way - we act another because we follow Jesus and do what He says.

       Lastly, there should be a unity among believers. The world and Satan must love it when we are fighting among ourselves. Does that mean we should all be in one big church and not be separated into denominations? I used to think that, but I couldn't go to a church where everyone is speaking in tongues and giving prophecies. Yet I could fellowship with them on the outside and serve hand in hand with them and consider them my brothers and sisters. I met for prayer with the pastor of a Charismatic church once a week and one week he told me that he was preaching about the Daniel diet and how everyone should be following it. That was the day I realized that we need different churches because I couldn't sit under that, yet I could pray with him on a weekly basis.

      We are so much more than a Hospital for sinners. We are a light shining in a dark world. We are victors and overcomers not defeated losers. We are a unified force demonstrating the love and Holy lifestyle that a self-centered world needs.