Studies

Church

Eph. 3:9-11 GOD PLANNED THE CHURCH AGES AGO (before the creation - Eph. 1:4) and kept it hidden until these times, in which it has been revealed.

Eph. 1:22-23 The church is the body of Christ, and Christ is its head.

• Col. 1:24 The body of Christ is the church.
• Col. 1:18 Christ is its head (also Eph. 1:22).
• I Tim. 2:5 Christ is the one mediator between God and men.
• I Pet. 2:9-10 Therefore since every Christian is a member of a "holy priesthood", we all have direct access to God through Christ.
• Devotion to Christ, the head, includes devotion to his body, the church.
• Eph. 5:23 Christ is the savior of the church. The relationship between Christ and the church is like that between husband and wife.
• Eph. 5:25-27 Christ sacrificed all for the church out of love.
• Eph. 5:24 The church must submit to Christ
• Acts 20:28 Jesus bought the church with his blood (I Cor. 6:20, I Cor. 7:23, 2 Pet. 2:1).

Eph. 4:4-6 There is ONE body - ONE CHURCH.

• In order to be in the church (i.e. a Christian) a person must be scripturally sound on the one body, the one Spirit, the one hope, the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism, and the one God and Father.
• Rom. 12:4-5 All who are Christians are members of one body
• I Cor. 12:12-27 Each member of the body needs each other member (24-25) God intended there to be no divisions in the body of Christ (27) Every Christian is a part of it ("you" can refer to all Christians - see I Cor. 1:2).
• I Tim. 3:15 the church is God's household.
• Eph. 2:19-20 God's household is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
• The foundation of the church is the bible.
• All who follow the Bible are in the church
• Those who don't obey the bible are not in the church - ie. not Christians.
• Remember: John 8:31-32 You are really Jesus' disciple if you hold to his teaching.

John 17:20-23 Jesus prays for all who will believe - the church; (22) He desired the same unity in the church as between him and the Father; (23) He desired complete unity as a testimony to the world.

• Notice (vs. 20) that Jesus prayed for those who would believe through the apostles' message - the only way to unity is by being devoted to the apostles' teachings as the early church was - (Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-35).

I Cor. 1:10-13 Paul pleads for unity so that factions (Gal. 5:20) don't arise in which people start following personalities rather than the whole gospel of Christ.

• Surely all of those were great men: Paul, Apollos (see Acts 18:24-28), Peter, and Christ.
• But if by saying "I follow Paul", they glorify the one man and give less authority to Peter's and Apollos' teaching, they become a divisinve force, a faction (I Cor. 3:3-9).
• When one says "I follow Christ," that is good, but does he then say that he will not obey the teachings of Peter and Paul? (see again Eph. 2:19-20) - Many people do this today, but Jesus said that those who obey his teaching will obey the Apostles' teaching. also (John 15:20).

THE CHURCH OUGHT TO BE UNIFIED THROUGH GOD'S WORD. MANY FALSE TEACHERS ARE AROUND (2 Tim. 4:3-4, 2 Pet. 2:1-4, I Tim. 4:1-3, I Tim. 5:3-5, I Tim. 1:3-4, Ti. 1:10-11, Matt. 24:10-11, Matt. 7:15). We must not consider the teachings ad traditions of men to be doctrine and we must abandon all such traditions that directly contradict the Bible (Mk. 7:6-8). Otherwise the church cannot be unified.

UNITY SHOULD BE SOUGHT BY TRUTH NOT COMPROMISE

• i.e. People not in the body must change before becoming part of it.