Excerpt from Take Heed How You Build

Christian friends, I’d like to challenge and admonish us all as a fellowship of churches, to know what we are ‘on about’, and to be doing what we are saying, in terms of the present truth of restoration. We read where Paul was travailing over the Galatian believers, but he stood ‘in doubt’ of them because their culture wasn’t consistent with the foundation that Paul had laid. Galatians 4:19,20. The situation was similar with Corinth, where Paul told them to ‘take heed’ how they were building – hence our title. 1 Corinthians 3:10. Indeed there is some ‘doubt’ as to just how obedient we are to the word we’ve heard.

My own journey in writing Take Heed How You Build has been somewhat terrifying, but encouraging at the same time. Like the Laodicean church, we have been rather blind to our true condition. And so as the flood and fire of God’s dealings come upon us, the flood is testing whether we are built on the rock of fellowship, and the fire is testing whether our building is of gold, silver and precious stones. In a number of ways, I believe we are suffering loss, and it is clear that wrath has been determined upon us. 1 Corinthians 3:15; Daniel 11:33. So we will need to find mercy to be snatched out of the fire. We are being given ‘space to repent’, before we end up in a sickbed due to our poor and wretched condition. Revelation 2:21,22; 3:17. Hidden things are to be excluded from our midst, so that a door of hope can be opened once again (cf. Achan’s story, and the Valley of Achor). We must ‘renounce the hidden things’ (as Achan did), although it is clear that we shall still suffer loss so that we ourselves can be saved. 2 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Corinthians 3:15.

Fellowship – dealing with sin.

There are two principal themes undergirding this study – fellowship, and the ability to deal with sin. We all believe that a genuine fellowship should be marked by the capacity to deal with sin, according to 1 John chapter one. (‘If we walk in the light … we have fellowship … and the blood cleanses ... sin.’) These subjects, covered in sections two and three, form the bulk of our study. What is fellowship, and how do we know if we are participating in it? What is sin, and how are we to be saved from it, in the context of fellowship?

Revising the Ephesian Pattern.

So let’s revise the precepts of the Ephesian Pattern by asking three questions. Firstly, what is our gospel – is salvation an individual experience, or is it found in a fellowship? Secondly, what is the true nature of fellowship? And thirdly, how do we build every house upon the rock, into one spiritual household, one fellowship, across a whole region?

On the first of these – the question of the gospel – many still believe that sons of God can receive a personal Saviour and be born again ‘out there’ somewhere, without ever being planted in a genuine fellowship. In such cases, church involvement is an option, and relationship beyond a small local group is even more optional. This is a major issue for this generation, where the whole focus is toward individuality, rather than community. So for many, the temptation is to add ‘spirit’ to psuche (individual soul-life) for the best lifestyle, without laying life down at all. No, we should not just sow zoe-life to the flesh, outside the body of Christ, as a way of satisfying our need for religion. The seed will die. We must come into the fellowship of the Son, and compel others, from the highways and byways, to do the same. 1 Corinthians 1:9.

Doubtless, many believers may have found genuine fellowship. But many have not, and we can legitimately call them to have fellowship with us. Why? Because we believe we are a genuine part of the body of Christ – just a part. And there is an urgent need to call those who are not in fellowship to come and be planted. If disconnected sons of God are not planted in vital fellowship, where they can lay life down and overcome sin, they will perish on wayside, stony or thorny ground.

Now moving to the second question above: What is the true nature of fellowship, and what makes a local fellowship of believers viable? Turning these thoughts around: obviously a local assembly will be viable if the nature of fellowship is understood. So what is fellowship? Is it a kind of special kinship based in mutual belief and common interest? And what does it mean to be ‘one Spirit’? Is this a kind of mysterious, spiritual connection?

We partly know the answer to these questions. We are in Christ. Our fellowship is based upon our adoption into Christ, the one Heir of the heavenly Father. We are members of one body – just one household, one building, one temple – built on the apostles and prophets, ie on the living word. The Scriptures expound this great marvel. But what does it mean? Where do we find fellowship? How do we know we’ve found it? What makes a local Christian assembly viable as a fellowship? Indeed, are we viable? What are we meant to achieve, and are we achieving it? Where is the foundation of the apostles and prophets? Where is the rock? And are we individually building our lives as persons, and our homes as houses, upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets?