Submitted by Aaron Igleheart
Is it okay for Christians to separate themselves from gathering with a local church body? Let’s turn to God’s Word for some direction on this matter. A survey of essential theological components regarding the matters of Christ, salvation, and the Holy Spirit within Ephesians 1, demonstrates that it is imperative that we as believers not neglect faithfulness in the salvation to which the Triune God has called all of us. Like the rest of the New Testament, Ephesians does not let any believer separate his salvation by Christ from Christ’s body, the church (Eph. 1:22-23). Paul demonstrates that before believers were made alive with Christ, they were dead in their sins and walked according to the ways of the world and the devil. Having been made alive through the risen and ascended Lord, we are a new creation in Christ to do good works (Eph. 1:4-5; 2:1-10). Believers are constituted to live out their calling as a real corporate body that is innervated by Christ Himself, meaning that the body of Christ takes up its role as living in true physical presence in its local areas of ministering.
Union with Christ has Implications
It is through the church as the chief means of reaching the world by living the gospel in their proclamation of the word of truth that Christ unites man to Himself (Eph. 1:13;). Sadly, it is popular today for Christians to attempt to dissociate themselves from their local churches, and they fail to realize that their dissociation is not only a dissociation from the church but also Jesus Christ, the head of the church. The result is a failure to live up to the calling prescribed for believers. This separation creates a picture of a severed head from a body, and that is the ugliness that manifests when believers try to live apart from the body. To understand the nature of our corporate union with one another correctly, it is vital to understand where all saints once stood in their past apart from Christ. Paul shows that Gentiles and Jews were far off from the presence of God. Additionally, for the Gentiles, it would seem for them that they were going to remain without hope because they were strangers to the promises of God regarding Christ. However, through Christ being a savior to both Jews and Greeks through His preaching of the word of truth and the shedding of His blood, both are reconciled to God with the result that both have access to the Father through the one Holy Spirit[1] (Eph. 2:12-18).
As one people for God, Paul displays that understanding the nature of being one body and believing the gospel of salvation entails the faithful immersion of believers in their local churches carrying out collective responsibilities as Christ’s people[2]. There is a real participation that is seen in the picture Paul gives when he writes about the saints loving one another in various manners, or when he speaks of the saints being equipped for faithful ministry and the building of the collective body of many members. There is no room for Christians to displace themselves as an estranged brick from the collective structure, a temple built for God’s dwelling by His Spirit (Eph. 2:21-22). Such an idea is not just a metaphorical reality. Still, it requires a real gathering of believers to be joined to one another as fellow children of the Father to actuate corporate fellowship and obedience to the King[3]. Ephesians 5:15-21 shows all Christians that living as a witness as lights that testify to the risen Christ in the world must be done in corporate unity[4]. It is simply unavoidable to read Ephesians and conclude the absence of a real familial union of believers[5] (Eph. 2:19). It is intertwined in Paul’s writing which leads one to conclude that there is a true legitimate gathering of believers with the purpose that they would attain the faithful ministry that they are trained for by their overseers (Eph. 4:11-16. Their manner of living or their ‘walk’ must follow godly wisdom, which sets the course for believers that if they wish to be imbued in living wisely, Paul tells them that it must be done corporately through their submission and serving one another out of reverence for Christ.
Our Calling for the Local Church
By looking to Christ, we understand that He descended to the earth and had become incarnate (Eph. 4:9-10) and had real, physical, and ministerial interaction with those who were far off so that He may reconcile them whether they were Jew or Gentile (Eph 2:17-19). As ones who bear the presence of Christ in His Spirit by being His body (Eph. 1:22-23), we too are then ordained for the work of ministry. The body of Jesus Christ is empowered to fulfill its commission in following the pattern of Christ of sacrificial ministry to the praise of His glory that He demonstrated to us in His kindness when He came to us in His incarnation, preaching the Word and gave Himself up for us[6] (Eph 4:11-16; Eph 4:20-5:2). This is the way we have learned in Jesus Christ: We engage the world’s corruption in darkness and sin through the preaching of the word of truth and the bearing of His presence through the Spirit with the purpose that all we minister to may become presented mature in Jesus Christ (Col. 1:28). As the saints in Ephesus understood these things (Eph 1:15-16), we too must continue to strain after our calling in this type of ministry through the local church. Such a manner of walking characterizes the true and visible unity between the local church body and her husband, Christ Jesus.
[1] Calvin, Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians, 199-200.
[2] Fowl, Ephesians: An Introduction and Study Guide, 10.
[3] Chapell, Ephesians: Reformed Expository Commentary, 115.
[4] Fowl, Ephesians: An Introduction and Study Guide 114.
[5] Chapell, Ephesians: Reformed Expository Commentary, 117-118.
[6] Fowl, Ephesians: An Introduction and Study Guide, 13.