Every local church is a collection of individual church members. Therefore, fostering a healthy church depends in some measure on fostering healthy church members who understand the centrality of living and working together as one body for the glory of God. Most importantly, it requires members of the church to live out the implications of the gospel within the context of a local community.
Anyone who has labored in ministry for any period of time knows that a consistent companion accompanies ministry. What is this companion? Discouragement. In this passage, Paul describes what it means to be the true minister of Christ through various discouragements and sufferings faced in the ministry.
The unity of the church refers to the union of the people of God, bound to Him and to one another by the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s that One blood which saves God’s people, and this same truth produces unity that transcends race, culture, age, and social status. Gospel, when truly embraced, will transform us and pursuing unity among the saints becomes an inevitable reality. In this passage, we learn how pursuing unity in the Kingdom of God is part of gospel witness, and also necessary to experience joy in Christian life.
The church as an institution is always dependent on its mature and effective leadership committee, or a group of Elders. If there are no godly Christian men who are equipped to handle the Word of God and the saints with integrity and moral uprightness, the church would collapse immediately. In this passage, Paul not just defends his ministry, but also lays out marks of a true Christian leader called by God to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to lead a life that brings glory to God alone.
Jesus Christ commissioned His Apostles to go around the world to preach the gospel and make disciples. It is not just for the Apostles to do this job (obviously because they’re not here), but every Christian is called to witness for Christ and be a disciple maker in some capacity. In this passage, we learn what kind of attitude and motives we are all called to have, in order to stand for Christ and serve His people.
Any church community’s institutional stability and solid spiritual growth is always dependent on its mature and effective leadership committee. If there are no godly Christian men who are equipped to handle the Word of God and the saints, the church would collapse immediately. In this passage, Paul describes what it means to be a Godly Christian leader called by God to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to suffer for His name sake.
Any church community’s institutional stability and solid spiritual growth is always dependent on its mature and effective leadership committee. If there are no godly Christian men who are equipped to handle the Word of God and the saints, the church would collapse immediately. In this passage, Paul explains what it means to be a genuine Christian leader called by God to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to suffer for His name sake.
In our first part under this topic, we learnt that the Lord has instituted His church with certain organizational structure which includes ‘Church Discipline’, operated through pastors, elders and deacons to counsel, rebuke, correct and guide us towards righteousness. In this passage, we learn how church discipline shouldn’t be practiced, and also what kind of response should we display when the elders, pastors and deacons work to restore our joy in the Lord.
In our Society, the affinity towards people of similar language, social status, culture or ethnicity is very high. We’re often seen associating with people who look like us in every way. Sadly, this is a similar practice that is seen even among churches. But this does not reflect the oneness or the unity that God has designed to reflect in the society, especially when Christians fail to display love and unity among themselves. Jesus Christ died for the sins of not just one particular culture, but for the sins of every culture, tribe and tongue in this world, so that we may all be one in Christ. In this passage, we learn how we should practice Christian Fellowship in a loving and sacrificial way, especially with those who are very different from us.
Most churches are often led by full time pastors and leaders. Which means, they’re primarily called to be the servants of God in extending His kingdom through regular preaching of the Word, administering the sacraments, exercising church disciplines and be involved in discipleship. Their source of income is mostly by the congregation’s faithful and generous giving. In this passage, we learn certain responsibilities the congregation i.e the church has toward the servants of God in a local church, and also other servants who are involved in the mission work elsewhere.