"You sit over there and someone will speak to you shortly."
The typical church experience is very much like our experience in a physician's waiting room. We go to the building where we are to obtain service then wait patiently in our seats until the expert arrives. After the expert talks we disperse.
There is nothing organic about the experience. There's a process, often written down in the form of a Robert's Rules of Order agenda, and we follow the process until the end. Indeed, even parts of the process are labeled "opening" and "closing" so that the people know when they've fulfilled their duty and can leave.
A family is not organized like that nor does it function in such a way. A family is led by the mature, typically older, members. When once they simply pulled their chair up to the table to be fed, the mature learned to bring their resources and wisdom to the table to feed others. This happened naturally as they retained the lessons taught by the older members of the generation before them. Instead of dissecting the family into castes or offices, they grew together, the mature teaching the young by word and most especially by example.
The church is designed like a family. Indeed, it is the prototypical family for all families. In the phrase "House of God" the word "house" is "family". It denotes a family (House) whose origin is specific (of God). All members of the family of God are to grow and mature to the standard of their father, God. Furthermore, since God has chosen Christ to represent Him in all things fully, we can look to Christ as our example.
So, when Jesus said to His disciples "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
They knew even this was couched within His words "..teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." The Apostles were the first to be sent, the first enlisted in the work of the Kingdom, and, because the House of God is a family that grows from the example of the mature, the one's whose lives were patterns for the others to follow.
Paul would write to Timothy, whom he sent, "I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to maintain these principles without bias, and to do nothing out of partiality." Which principles? The ones Paul just shared with Timothy.
To the Corinthians Paul would write "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ."
Earlier he would write to them "..but as my beloved children I warn you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me."
This is a man who knows his place in the House of God: as one who may set an example for others to follow, as a father who may birth faith within children of God. Paul is a father of their faith and so he may be received as a father in the house. This is not a title, as the Romans have made it, but a natural order of an organic house.
Do you see the pattern: Christ to Paul to the Corinthian saints or even Christ to Paul to Timothy to ... A clear family lineage, from the head of the church (Christ) to the body of all believers. There is always a mediary to the next generation. In this case it was Paul. From the Corinthian believers others would step up, or grow up, into maturity to be the next example to others. Peter and John also write to their "children" (an exact quote) in the Lord.
I'll leave Ephesians Chapter 4 below. This passage is the framework upon which I have built this understanding. One note: even gifts are to be shared. If one possesses the gift of an apostle it is not so that he may lord over the people, it is so that he may impart to the people his understanding of foundational things and explanations of mysteries and of wisdom. If one member of the body is gifted it is for the benefit of the whole body.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
A teacher should teach others how to teach. A pastor should teach others how to care for the people. A prophet should teach others how to hear God as He speaks to our spirits. An evangelist should teach others how to share the love of God among one another. An apostle should teach others foundational care for the house and how to administrate wisdom among the saints.
Because the much of the modern church IS NOT organized like an organic family, but, rather, like an institution, we are seeing something other than maturity. You cannot ignore Christ's and the apostles' design for maturing the Body of Christ and still expect maturity. So, instruction about things like forgiveness is always taught down to the most common denominator (if you will), the new believer. "Forgive everyone, all the time" is taught without regard to the scriptures that teach otherwise and the examples from the mature who went before us.
Biblically, only Paul can claim "It is just me a Jesus". Even then, Paul spent 14 years under teachers and prophets of the Lord until being released as an apostle to the Gentiles. When it came time for Paul to equip the next generation of rulers in the church we see Timothy and Titus promoted by Paul (no doubt there were others) so even Paul knew to equip the younger generation to watch over the souls of those less mature.
As sons in the House of God it is our right to have this support structure available to us; to have someone like Paul or Peter or John to look to as our example... an elder who knows us intimately. Not as an elder in title but one we've grown to love and follow because of their love for the Lord, His Word, and the people of God. If this was never offered to you, or if you were taught this was not needed, you have suffered an injustice.
Grace and Peace,
Aaron56
The typical church experience is very much like our experience in a physician's waiting room. We go to the building where we are to obtain service then wait patiently in our seats until the expert arrives. After the expert talks we disperse.
There is nothing organic about the experience. There's a process, often written down in the form of a Robert's Rules of Order agenda, and we follow the process until the end. Indeed, even parts of the process are labeled "opening" and "closing" so that the people know when they've fulfilled their duty and can leave.
A family is not organized like that nor does it function in such a way. A family is led by the mature, typically older, members. When once they simply pulled their chair up to the table to be fed, the mature learned to bring their resources and wisdom to the table to feed others. This happened naturally as they retained the lessons taught by the older members of the generation before them. Instead of dissecting the family into castes or offices, they grew together, the mature teaching the young by word and most especially by example.
The church is designed like a family. Indeed, it is the prototypical family for all families. In the phrase "House of God" the word "house" is "family". It denotes a family (House) whose origin is specific (of God). All members of the family of God are to grow and mature to the standard of their father, God. Furthermore, since God has chosen Christ to represent Him in all things fully, we can look to Christ as our example.
So, when Jesus said to His disciples "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
They knew even this was couched within His words "..teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." The Apostles were the first to be sent, the first enlisted in the work of the Kingdom, and, because the House of God is a family that grows from the example of the mature, the one's whose lives were patterns for the others to follow.
Paul would write to Timothy, whom he sent, "I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to maintain these principles without bias, and to do nothing out of partiality." Which principles? The ones Paul just shared with Timothy.
To the Corinthians Paul would write "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ."
Earlier he would write to them "..but as my beloved children I warn you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me."
This is a man who knows his place in the House of God: as one who may set an example for others to follow, as a father who may birth faith within children of God. Paul is a father of their faith and so he may be received as a father in the house. This is not a title, as the Romans have made it, but a natural order of an organic house.
Do you see the pattern: Christ to Paul to the Corinthian saints or even Christ to Paul to Timothy to ... A clear family lineage, from the head of the church (Christ) to the body of all believers. There is always a mediary to the next generation. In this case it was Paul. From the Corinthian believers others would step up, or grow up, into maturity to be the next example to others. Peter and John also write to their "children" (an exact quote) in the Lord.
I'll leave Ephesians Chapter 4 below. This passage is the framework upon which I have built this understanding. One note: even gifts are to be shared. If one possesses the gift of an apostle it is not so that he may lord over the people, it is so that he may impart to the people his understanding of foundational things and explanations of mysteries and of wisdom. If one member of the body is gifted it is for the benefit of the whole body.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
A teacher should teach others how to teach. A pastor should teach others how to care for the people. A prophet should teach others how to hear God as He speaks to our spirits. An evangelist should teach others how to share the love of God among one another. An apostle should teach others foundational care for the house and how to administrate wisdom among the saints.
Because the much of the modern church IS NOT organized like an organic family, but, rather, like an institution, we are seeing something other than maturity. You cannot ignore Christ's and the apostles' design for maturing the Body of Christ and still expect maturity. So, instruction about things like forgiveness is always taught down to the most common denominator (if you will), the new believer. "Forgive everyone, all the time" is taught without regard to the scriptures that teach otherwise and the examples from the mature who went before us.
Biblically, only Paul can claim "It is just me a Jesus". Even then, Paul spent 14 years under teachers and prophets of the Lord until being released as an apostle to the Gentiles. When it came time for Paul to equip the next generation of rulers in the church we see Timothy and Titus promoted by Paul (no doubt there were others) so even Paul knew to equip the younger generation to watch over the souls of those less mature.
As sons in the House of God it is our right to have this support structure available to us; to have someone like Paul or Peter or John to look to as our example... an elder who knows us intimately. Not as an elder in title but one we've grown to love and follow because of their love for the Lord, His Word, and the people of God. If this was never offered to you, or if you were taught this was not needed, you have suffered an injustice.
Grace and Peace,
Aaron56
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2 and all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia