What is the Place of the Church in the World?

Should she partner with governments and parrot their policies?

Photo by Ismael Paramo on Unsplash

Question! Question! Question!

The church of God has an identity problem. When people face identity crises, they need to ask questions about who they truly are. For the church of the living God, the beginning is to ask, "Who is Jesus Christ?"

And to this question, everyone has an answer (Matthew 16:13-14). Some say He was a prophet; others say He was a great motivator, another set of people say He was the founder of a new religion—Christianity. But when the question becomes a personal one, each of us would have as diverse an answer as may have been our encounter with Jesus.

Some people, for example, will have nothing to say about Jesus beyond what they hear others say about Him because they have never encountered Him. But to someone who was ill and got healed by Jesus, He would be a Healer. To another who needed a miracle and got one by Him, Jesus is a Miracle worker. But is that His identity? Is that who He is?

Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 16:16-17, NKJV)

The significance of Jesus as Saviour and Son of God

When Peter answered Jesus' question on who they (His disciples) say He is, Jesus noted that Peter's answer was not of earthly origin but by heavenly revelation. This revelation that Jesus is the Christ, and the Son of the Living God, is the "rock" upon which the church is built (Matthew 16:18)!

When we speak about the revelation of who Jesus is, we are talking of having a personal conviction of the truth of who Jesus is, as revealed from heaven through Scripture. If people are convinced that Jesus is the Saviour of humankind from sin (which is His mission) and the Son of God (which speaks of His deity), they would readily accept His verdict that they are sinners who need His salvation!

Indeed, we receive eternal life when we believe that Jesus is both Saviour and God (John 20:30-31). This belief is based on our conviction, leading to our confession about Jesus.

What does it mean to confess Jesus?

if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9-10, NKJV)

To confess something is not merely speaking about it but accepting and admitting what is being confessed with heart conviction, as truth. Before one can truly confess Jesus, one must be convinced beyond any doubt that Jesus is indeed the Christ—the Saviour of humankind from sin and the Son of God. If your belief lacks conviction, your confession is worthless!

To be convinced that Jesus Christ is who God says He is, you can have no other argument to surmount that truth! If there remains an iota of doubt in your heart about who Jesus is, your confession is meaningless. Therefore, the starting point to confessing Jesus as Saviour and the Son of God is a conviction about who He is.

The Holy Spirit convinces and convicts sinners that their lifestyle is a rebellious act against God. He lets them know that they live contrary to God's will and deserve God's judgment of eternal death. He also lets them know that there is hope for them because Jesus paid the price for their sins. When a sinner accepts the Holy Spirit's verdict and admits their sinfulness and need for Jesus, the Son of God, to save them (John 8:34-36; 16:8), they will be forgiven their sins and enabled to live right before God.

Conviction, confession, and conversion

Once a person confesses Jesus, three things happen in tandem: firstly, God declares the individual righteous, meaning that they are without sin. This is justification—it is as if you never sinned!

Secondly, the Holy Spirit makes the individual righteous by indwelling and working in them. This is sanctification—everything responsible for sinful living is removed from the individual's life, and all that makes for godly living is introduced within them.

Finally, the individual can now live righteously because the cause of unrighteousness—sinful human nature—has been eliminated. Humans are naturally hostile to God and unwilling and unable to obey Him (Romans 8:5-8), but with the work of the Holy Spirit, we become willing and able to obey God. Indeed, if the Holy Spirit does not indwell anyone, they are not Christian (Romans 8:9)!

The combination of God declaring us righteous because we confessed Jesus, and the Holy Spirit sanctifying us, results in a transformed life. This transformed life is manifested in righteous living.

The church of the living God consists of people

Individuals who have thus been converted, when brought together, are referred to as the church. The word 'church' has been misconstrued in many circles to depict a building where people worship God. However, in Matthew 16:18, where the term was first used in Scripture, Jesus gives a different connotation of what the church is.

Jesus used the Greek word, 'ekklesia', translated 'church', not to refer to a physical building. Yes, Jesus uses the phrase, 'build My church', but He did so metaphorically. He was not referring to bricks and mortar!

In common usage at the time, ekklesia refers to people called out from their homes to a public place for public discourse. In Acts 19:21-41 (NKJV), ekklesia is translated, 'assembly', three times. This ekklesia was unruly and confused, and many did not know why they were there. Also, when the ekklesia dispersed, they each returned to their homes.

How different is the ekklesia of God! God's ekklesia consists of people called out from the world through conviction, confession, and conversion, never to return to it! They are called out of the world to Jesus Christ! God's ekklesia comprises holy, godly, and orderly individuals, not unruly ignorant people. They are taught about their new Master, Jesus Christ, and their new life, purpose, and identity.

Therefore, the church of the Living God is an aggregation of saved and sanctified people of different nationalities, skin colour, languages, socioeconomic status, etc. They are irrevocably convinced that Jesus is the Saviour of humankind from sin and God's judgment and that He is the Son of the living God. They have confessed Him as such, repudiated their sins, and have been converted. They could gather in a physical building for worship and fellowship or be scattered and engaged in various God-ordained pursuits or vocations worldwide.

Narrowing the 'church' to just any group of people meeting on a Sunday or any other day in a physical building is a deviation from the meaning intended by the Lord. Every day and everywhere around the world, the church of the living God exists, living and breathing to the glory of God!

The church of the living God is also 'a building'

But the ekklesia of God is also a building—not a physical building. The saved and sanctified people are God's choice for a dwelling place, individually and collectively (2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:19-22; Revelation 21:3). Since God is holy and cannot dwell in an unholy place, salvation and sanctification are thus God's way of making His dwelling place of choice, the church, habitable for Himself! Permanently removing the church from a worldly lifestyle and bringing her into a new and living way of life of godliness and righteousness, makes it possible for God to live in and through her—individually and collectively—by His Spirit (John 14:16-23)!

So, the church is the habitation of the One true living God. Thus, when Jesus referred to the church in Matthew 16:18, He was speaking of bringing together individuals as spiritual stones hewn out of the world (1 Peter 2:5), redeemed by His blood, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, to a life that is completely dependent on God and His Christ. The church is thus, not just an aggregation of saved and sanctified people for its own sake, but the built-up temple of God, and therefore, His sanctuary and habitation!

The church of the living God is not of this world

All that is said so far is to establish that the church of the living God cannot be a vehicle of, or, for worldly pursuits! The church has been called out of the world and a worldly lifestyle, having been washed and sanctified (1 Corinthians 6:11), unto a new life of complete obedience to God and Christ (1 Peter 1:2), so that she can be God's habitation! The church belongs exclusively to God, and God is jealous over her! This is the identity of the church of the living God!

Having been called out of the world, the church never returns to it. Backsliding is not one of her attributes! She is resilient in faith, full of inexpressible joy, been made pure, humble, and full of agape love. She is not invested in this world but is a sojourner there (1Peter 2:11). She understands her abode is in heaven (Philippians 3:20)!

Nonetheless, here on earth, the church manifests the power of God, flowing through her like a river (John 4:10, 13-14; 7:37-39) and releasing God's blessings to countless people, if haply such people might taste of God's goodness, repent, and turn to Him. Indeed, the church desires and prays for the salvation of all and peace on earth (1 Timothy 2:1-4)—she is not a warmonger! The church neither seeks nor wants power outside of God, be it political, financial, or esoteric.

The Christian's identity

The church is the singular name for Christians. The term 'Christian'—Christ-like—was first used in Antioch in the First Century A.D. People observed the clear distinction between themselves and those who had confessed Jesus (Acts 11:26).

Christians, thus, neither adopt a worldly lifestyle nor a political platform. They have been called to Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:18-24) and do not concern themselves overly with the world, except as commanded by Him (2 Timothy 2:4)! Indeed, Christians, or the church, is the body, and Christ is the head (Ephesians 5:23)! It is from Christ that Christians derive their identity.

There is no discrimination whatsoever in the church, and her allegiance is to God and His Christ!

He [Jesus] died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:15, NKJV)

Christians live for God and His Christ. They are not nationalists, neither are they tribalists nor racists; they are Christians! Today, some people claim to be Christians but are given wholesale to political platforms, politicians, nationalistic policies contrary to God's word, among many other contradictions. These cannot be Christians! The only policies that Christians parrot are those that issue from heaven!

The truth is that the church of God is different from the world! She cannot engage in what the world engages in. The world should not enamour the church. Indeed, the church will be hunted down by the world, and it is her privilege, calling, and identity to suffer for Christ (Philippians 1:29; 1 Peter 1:21)!

So, what is the place of the church in the world?

We are in it, but not of it (John 17:15-16)! We respond only to Jesus' words, not the world's! We are God's ambassadors in the world. Sometimes, the world and the word of God may appear to agree; they do not! So, let us not lose sight of God's word; it is how God leads us to do His bidding in the world!