The Christian church is a fellowship and it is a reflection of the heavenly fellowship. This fact is the standard to test certain theories and activities connected with the church. For example, our church services—are they run in a mechanical way, or do we recognize one another’s presence as we sing or pray? Take another example: how should a denominational organization be structured? It is plain that central organization can only be justified if it is a strengthening of the fellowship of the congregation, and this means that centralized authority must be very carefully used so as not to impair the responsibility and reality of the local fellowship. Power is temptation, for power destroys fellowship.
Take an example—imagine a situation, perhaps in a new housing estate, or anywhere, where there happens to be, say, eight well-instructed Christian homes in which the parents lead their children in daily worship and in Christian instruction, and where the fathers are members of Christian cells in their places of work during the week. On Sunday these families come together and form a Christian congregation. But what if the denomination, using the power of ccntralized authority, sends as their minister a man in whom they have no confidence with regard to his theological opinions? The only result will be that the fellowship that meets in connection with that denomination is immediately destroyed and the families dispersed, no longer meeting together in that denomination. They may, of course, re-group, but as far as the denomination is concerned it has done its best to disperse the fellowship because improper consideration has been given to the relationship of the centralized denomination and the purpose of local fellowship. For what responsible Christian father would bring his worshipping family to sit under a minister on Sundays in whose teaching he has no confidence or whose bossiness rides roughshod over all? Yet denominations, seeking efficiency without knowledge, are creating just this sort of situation. No wonder our church life limps.
Fellowship is the essence of Christian association in church, and we may apply this in assessing current views of the nature of the church. As is well-known, Roman Catholic theology defines the church not in terms of fellowship but in terms of visible structure of the hierarchy. For Roman Catholics, the church is essentially a visible body and its visibility is due to the fact that it is formed round the hierarchy, of which the Pope is the head. The Pope and the bishops form the church, the priests are the representatives of the bishops and the people are directed by the priests. This theory leaves little room, if any, for Christian fellowship. Any fellowship that exists is accidental to the theory, so that the Roman Catholic goes to church, not primarily to have fellowship, but to assist the priest as he offers the mass for the propitiation of sins. Thus church going is not an end in itself, that is, it is not primarily fellowship but is a means to something else, namely the offering of a good work to God in the sacrifice of the mass.
Church is fellowship and it reflects the fellowship of heaven; for heaven is fellowship. The vision of Revelation 21:3 sums up God’s purposes for his people: “God shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more“. We already begin to experience this fellowship with God and with one another through our own faith in Christ. As St John says, “our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ“ (1 John 1:3). Real life is meeting and heaven is people.
Since fellowship is God’s purpose for us now and forever, it is the test by which our actions are judged, not only of church activity but of every activity. Fellowship must behove our righteousness—that is right relationship—while self-centredness and selfishness, mankind’s characteristic sin, destroys fellowship. But the presence of the Spirit of God in our hearts is the antidote to selfishness; and so we can only experience fellowship, whether in the family or in church or in the community, if we are God-centred and are in fellowship with him through Jesus Christ our lord.
No lordship over faith
Like St John, St Paul also recognized the independent standing of the true Christian. He told the Corinthians in the second epistle, chapter 1, verse 24, that he had no lordship over their faith. If this is the position of an apostle with regard to his own converts then it is plain that no-one today, whether bishop, priest, minister, council or pope has lordship over the faith of anyone who is a true child of God and who consequently is in direct fellowship with God through his spirit.
Role of Ministers
As St Paul put it in Ephesians 3:12, “In Christ we have boldness and access in confidence throughour faith”, and the New Testament writers urge Christians to be aware of this great privilege that through Christ each may, himself, enter directly into God’s presence. No intermediary is needed, apart from that great high priest, our saviour Jesus Christ. This is the unique feature of Christianity, that every Christian has the right, without the aid of any other human intermediaries or priests, to enter into God’s presence. We live in God’s presence. This is the privilege of being a child of God, which is ours through our relationship to God’s only son, Jesus Christ. Nor do we need to offer any further sacrifice than that of Jesus Christ made once for all on Calvary for us.
In the New Testament, Jesus is described as a priest; that is to say, he is one who has the right to enter into God’s presence. Moreover, every Christian is described in the New Testament as a priest; that one who has the right to draw near to God and enter his presence. For example, in Revelation chapter 1 the redeemed sing praises to Jesus who “loved us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood; and he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father, to him be the glory … Amen”.
It is interesting to note that Christian ministers, whether bishops or elders and deacons, are never called priests in the New Testament. The reason is simple, for Christian ministers are not intermediaries on behalf of others, because the Christian believer needs no intermediary between God and his own soul, no intermediary, that is, apart from his saviour Jesus Christ, the great high priest of all Christians. A moment’s reflection will show how out of keeping any other doctrine would be, because if God himself dwells in our hearts through Christ there is no place for the intrusion of a human priest. The Bible doctrine is clear: Jesus Christ is our only mediator, and for Christ’s sake every Christian has been given God’s holy spirit, who directs and guides and forms Christ’s character within him; not in a vacuum but by means of the word of God as it is read, preached and ministered Christian-to-Christian in the Christian fellowship or church. Every Christian may enter God’s presence directly in prayer, whether for forgiveness or for guidance or for protection, or for petition for others.
We do not depend upon any priest for forgiveness, as the Old Testament saints did, for in Christ as our one and only priest we have a direct access to God. Nor do we depend upon any priest for authoritative direction of our soul in Christian living, for God himself, the Holy Spirit, dwells in our hearts to teach us and to guide us, using his word in the Bible to instruct our mind. God’s spirit shows us quite instinctively what is the loving thing to do in each circumstance and, moreover, he helps us to do it. Since love is the motivation for Christian living—for love sums up the whole of God’s law—we are thus freed from any human intermediary between our own souls and our heavenly father. We do not need a priest to weigh up our actions and pass judgement on them, for God’s spirit teaches us directly. It is only by ignoring the New Testament doctrine of the holy spirit that it is possible to erect a church system with jurisdiction over the souls and consciences of Christians. As sons of God, Christians are free, led by the spirit.
We should give full weight to the great privilege of sonship and possession of God’s spirit. St John writes, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: and such we are” (1 Jn 3:1). To be the child of God, sharing his Spirit, is the privilege of all who are forgiven in Christ the Saviour. The future will be even greater than the present. We all ought to realize the implications of this privilege and live accordingly, each day walking in his presence as God’s sons and as his priests, ourselves going to him directly in daily prayer for one another and daily reading of holy scripture and looking forward to that fuller experience of his presence in the future, of which our present experience of the holy spirit is the foretaste and guarantee.
