The work of the church is three fold in nature. Ephesians 4: 12 gives these three works, “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” David Lipscomb is recorded as saying about this verse in the Gospel Advocate commentaries, “Then the first and most important work of the church is to seek to perfect themselves in the divine knowledge and Christian character. Second to look after the poor, afflicted, and destitute of the children of God (he did not believe in “saints only” benevolence), and then after the preaching of the word and building up of the church. This order of God is effective. We reverse the order, neglect the obligation to perfection of the character, and the second lesson, too, and devote our energies to the third and last. We fail of the last because we neglect the first and second. If the saints would perfect their own characters in righteousness and true holiness, and care for the needy and helpless, then converting all possible to be converted would be an easy matter.” I think this is pretty good. But today nothing seem to have changed. We have the same problems today as in D. Lipscomb’s day.
Today, we find that the church is charged with bring up the children of members and the community. Where is that in the Bible? I thought that the family (mother and fathers) was charged with raising the children. We hear, “we are losing our children,” I ask the question, why? Could it be that mothers and fathers are not doing what they need to at home? Could it be that mothers and fathers are not living right before their children? I am not opposed to members of the church getting together and going and doing things together, I think that is great. But when mothers and fathers send their children to do something with the “youth minister” then something is wrong. The “youth minister” is not charged with bring up your children! The “youth minister” is not charged with teaching your children the Bible, you the parents are. How many times have your children seen you study your Bible? How many times have your children seen you pray? Let us get back to doing what the Bible says we need to be doing!
The Gospel is still God’s power to save (Rom 1:16). Nothing will take the place of Bible preaching and teaching. This needs to be done in the home and also to the entire world. If we want our children to be saved and stay saved then why not teach them how to be saved and stay saved at home? This way we know what our children are being taught.
We live in a fasted paced world. Many times we do not want to take the time to spend with our children. Many times we do not want to take the time to teach our children. Many times we do not want to take the time to teach our children the truth. But if we do it will be time well spent. If we will take the time to teach our children the plan of salvation and why the church is important then we will not be losing our children to the world! We will be saving our children. But this may be the problem; we do not know these truths ourselves. So maybe we need to spend the time with our Bibles learning them first then teaching them to our children.
Another thing, what do we say about the services or the men conducting the services on the way home? What do we say about the church? Do we talk of the church as though it is a separated entity? I mean by this do we talk of the church as though we are not a part of her? Do we use terms like, “those people down there?” Do we use, “those men down there ought to do this or that?” This might say to our children that we are not involved with what is going on and you do not have to be either. Is this not like second-guessing our favorite football team? Just what are we saying to our children when all we do is criticize the church and the men who are leading the church? This maybe the reason so many of our children are leaving the church.
The denominational world sees the church as unimportant, do we? Yet Christ gave His life for her. That makes the church very, very important. Let us always treat her as though she is important. Let us talk positive about the church. Let us learn the importance of the church by studying God’s Word. Why not, if you are not, come to the Bible study that the church offers. We have Bible study on Wednesday evening and also on Sunday morning. It is good for us to be here.
Love, Keith
