Week 2-Interdependence
Membership Means
Interdependence
Central Bible Truth
God wants us to relate to the local
church by recognizing our interdependence on one another as members of the
church.
Background Passage
1 Timothy 5:1-2; 1 Corinthians 1:9-11; 1 Peter 5:1-5; Romans 12:3-5; Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Peter 2:4-8
1 Timothy 5:1-2; 1 Corinthians 1:9-11; 1 Peter 5:1-5; Romans 12:3-5; Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Peter 2:4-8
Focal Passage:
Romans 12:3-21
Lesson Aim for Week 2: (Instructional, How To?)
Weeks 1, 3, and 5 are to be informational, or “how come”.
Weeks 2, 4, and 6 are to be instructional, or “how to”.
Weeks 2, 4, and 6 are to be instructional, or “how to”.
To lead adults to see that being a member
of a local church is important for their obedience to Christ, their growth in
their salvation, and the overall health of the other members of the local
church body.
The Bible in Context
The call to be an active member of a
local church is as old as Christianity itself. The word “membership” conveys
the idea that we have a relationship with one another. In the Greek, melos meant a “limb” of the body.
The early Greek writers would only use melos
in the plural sense, stressing the interdependency necessary in the word.
Later, the word was also used for a musical member or phrase and is where we
get the word “melody”.
Christian author C.S. Lewis explained the need for the diversity of our Christian melos in His book The Problem of Pain.1
Why
else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love
each differently? And this difference, so far from impairing, floods with
meaning the love of all blessed creatures for one another, the communion of
saints. If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical
worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be
like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note.
Rick Warren summarized our
interdependence as members by saying, “Any organ that is detached from the body
will not only miss what it was created to be, it will also shrivel and die
quickly. The same is true for Christians that are uncommitted to any specific
congregation.” 2
Some do not understand the importance
of local church membership. They feel that being a part of the “universal”
church is enough, saying, “I don’t have to go to a building to worship God.”
That view is not supported by the Bible. The New Testament speaks of the local church more often than it does of the word “church”
in the sense of the universal body of Christians.
Others will often ask, “Why doesn’t the
church do ‘such and such’ or ‘so and so’?” without realizing that “we” ourselves
are the church. Perhaps God has placed a ministry of service on your heart so
that you can help organize and provide it for others.
It is a privilege and blessing to be an
active member of the local body of Christ. In Romans 12:4-5, Paul stressed the
interdependency of local church members when he wrote that we are “members
of one another”. Our question is how to make our interdependency more
meaningful.
There are numerous other
“parables” or analogies of membership in the New and Old Testaments. This week,
however, we limit our study to six membership analogies.
First, we will see that like a family, we are to be faithful; like a fellowship, we are to be accountable; and like a flock of sheep, we have a ministry of service to one another for our Chief Shepherd.
First, we will see that like a family, we are to be faithful; like a fellowship, we are to be accountable; and like a flock of sheep, we have a ministry of service to one another for our Chief Shepherd.
As a body, we are
dependent on the Head and need each other, like members of a physical body are
interrelated and interdependent on other members of the same body. As a bride,
we are to be known by our love both for Christ and for one another and that
love flows from Christ’s love for us. As a building, Peter described us as
living stones, “yoked” to one another and yielded to the Cornerstone
foundation, Jesus Christ.
The outline for Week 2
explains the biblical basis of how
we can be activated and equipped for ministry and service in the church:
1C.S.
Lewis The Problem of Pain, (New York, NY, Harper Collins Publisher), pg.
155
2Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, (Grand Rapids,
Mich., Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), p. 310
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