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Page 40
But within this Church Jesus had gathered a group about Himself, to whom
He imparted His faith and purpose, and into whom He breathed His Spirit.
He taught them to think of themselves as salt and light to season and
illumine the community about them. As leaders, He bade them become like
Himself servants of all. One was their Master, they all were brethren.
Soon they developed a corporate feeling that separated them from their
fellow Jews, a corporate feeling Jesus had to rebuke because of its
exclusiveness: "Master, we saw one casting out demons in Thy name; and
we forbade him because he followed not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him
not, for he that is not against us is for us." On the eve of His death
He kept a Supper with them, which pictured to them His sustaining
fellowship with them and their comradeship with one another in Him. And
He left them with the consciousness that they were to carry forward His
work, were possessed of His inspiring Spirit and had His presence with
them always. Not by Jesus' prescribed plans, but by His spiritual
prompting the Church came to be. "Like some tall palm the noiseless
fabric sprang."
It was not, then, organization, or ritual, or creed, that made the
Christian Church, but oneness of purpose with Christ. In the picture of
its earliest days we see it maintaining Jesus' intercourse with God by
prayer; continuing to learn of Him through those who had been closest to
Him; breaking the bread of fellowship with Him and one another;
expressing that fellowship in a mutually helpful community life; and all
of its members trying to bear witness to others of the supreme worth of
Jesus. We get at what they think of themselves by the names they use:
they are "disciples," pupils of the Divine Teacher; "believers,"
trusting His God; "brethren," embodying His spirit toward each other;
"saints," men and women set apart to the one purpose of forwarding the
Kingdom; "of the Way," with a distinctive mode of life in the unseen and
the seen, following Jesus, _the_ Way. They called themselves the
Ecclesia--the called out for God's service; the Household of
Faith--insiders in God's family, sharers of His plans; the Temple of
God--those in whose life with each other and the world God's Spirit can
be seen and felt; the Body of Christ--the organism alive with His faith
and hope and love, through which He still works in the earth; the Israel
of God, the holy nation continuing the spiritual life and mission of
God's people of old--no new Church but the reformed and reborn Church of
God.
The main point for them was that in this new community the Spirit of God
was alive and at work, producing in its members Christlike characters
and equipping them for Christlike usefulness. A body without life is a
corpse; and the Church fairly throbbed with vitality. It naturally
organized itself for work, but in organizing it was not conscious of
conforming to some fixed plan already laid down, but of allowing the
Spirit freely to lead from day to day. Christians found among themselves
specially gifted men--apostles (of whom there were many beside the
Twelve), with talents for leadership and missionary
enterprise--prophets, teachers; and they instinctively held these men
highly in love for their works' sake. One thinks of a figure like Paul,
who claimed no human appointment or ordination, but whose divine
authority was recognized by those who owed their spiritual lives to him.
And beside this informal leadership of gifted individuals, a more formal
chosen leadership came into existence. God's Spirit used the materials
at hand; and Christians in various parts of the Roman world had been
accustomed to different types of organization in their respective
localities, and these types suggested similar offices in the Church.
Some had been accustomed to the town government of a Palestinian village
by seven village elders; and this may have suggested "the Seven" chosen
in Jerusalem to care for the poor. Some were brought up with the
Oriental idea of succession through the next oldest brother, and this
may account for the position of eminence held by James, "the brother of
the Lord." Some in Gentile cities had been members of artisan societies,
guilds with benefits in case of sickness or death, not unlike lodges
among ourselves; and many hints, and perhaps offices (the overseer or
bishop, for instance) were taken from them. Some had been familiar with
the Roman relationship of patron and client, and when the little groups
of converts were gathered together in a wealthier Christian's house, he
would be given something of the position of the Roman _patronus_. Still
others had been trained in the synagogue, either as Jews or as
proselytes, and would naturally follow its organization in their
Christian synagogues. There seems to have been variety of form, and
along with this variety a felt and expressed unity, with freest
intercommunion and hearty co�peration for the evangelization of the
world. Throughout there was democracy, so that even a leader so
conscious of divine authority as Paul appeals to the rank and file, "I
speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say."
In worship, the Church from its early days had the two fixed rites of
Baptism and the Lord's Supper; but beside them were most informal
meetings for mutual inspiration. "What is it then, brethren: When ye
come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a
revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be
done unto edifying." Here was room for variety to suit the needs of many
temperaments.
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