1 Corinthians 12:12-31 "IS CHURCH MEMBERSHIP BIBLICAL?"

Our text teaches us that: 

(i)               V.12 The church can be compared to a human body with its many constituent parts (members). 

(ii)             V.13 The Holy Spirit is the One who brings about the new birth into that membership. (VERY IMPORTANT!)

(iii)           V.14 Although the body is one being, yet the body has many components (legs, arms, torso, various organs and sub –parts such as  foot, ears, eyes  etc.)  

(iv)            Vv.15 -17 each part serves a different purpose, but all exist for the good and benefit of the whole. No part exists (nor can it exist) for its own benefit.
(v)             Vv.18 -26 God arranged the members of the human body, as He sovereignly chose. Our bodies are His design. This design is not based on a single body part, but on a variety of body parts, and no body part is indispensable. No part of the body can say, ‘I don’t need you’. Paul repeats this again and again. There can be no thought of division of the body (v.25) and mutual caring of the members of our body is assumed. In fact, if one  part of the body suffers, all parts suffer; if one part rejoices, all  rejoice (v.26)

(vi)            V.27 So this analogy  of the  human works well  to describe  the  workings of the church.

(vii)          Vv. 28-30 In the church, which is made up of all those  who were baptized into one body by the Holy Spirit  there are various members with varying spiritual gifts, working together for the common good.

(viii)        V.31 and Chapter 13:  the attitude in which the body of Christ lives and works together is called ‘the more excellent way’ by Paul. In Chapter 13 Paul warns us that mere giftedness (13:1-3) is not what keeps a church unified. The gifts and individual talents of people must work by the rule of 13:4-7. This is the love that animates and produces true body life – true church life! 

I trust that from this text the Holy Spirit has immediately convinced you that membership in a church is a biblical concept. 

And it is essential.  According to this text you cannot say that you are a Christian, but not a member of the church.  Take careful note of this! To be ‘baptized by one Spirit into one body…’ (v.13) means that you are born again (for that is what Spirit baptism is) into one body  (the body of Christ – the church). 
The new birth = baptism by one Spirit. 
The Holy Spirit baptizes us into Jesus, but this is not where it ends. The Holy Spirit baptizes us into the body of Jesus – the church! 
You therefore cannot say, Jesus – YES, church - NO!   
You cannot divide that which God has joined together.   
If you have been sceptical, then I trust that the Holy Spirit inspired Bible has won the argument today. If you say that you trust Christ, it also follows that you  must obey Him.  
You cannot detach yourself from the body of Christ  if you claim to be His follower any more  than an  eye or an ear or a leg  can detach itself from your body, and survive!

There are many people in our day who are sceptical about joining in a church membership. Some say 'it’s not in the Bible’, using the common argument, ‘where in the Bible is there a membership list’?Others say that they have been previously hurt in a local church (and that is a problem that needs to be dealt with!) and like a divorced person they are now reluctant to commit themselves again to such a relationship in membership.  They use this argument to keep the church at a distance, whilst perhaps attending church services.  But that is it. No commitment, no accountability to the body.

But here is the painful reality and it is ironic.  There are members of any given local church that actually do the same. Whilst they are members, their participation in the body of Christ is not evident. They do not exert their spiritual gift in a meaningful way and with joy. They do not pray with the church in any visible way. Their fellowship is limited. They do not participate in the gospel ministry of the church. From our text we see that the membership that Paul envisages is   an integrated, committed, serving-one-another, loving, involved membership – just like the picture of the human body and its constituent parts, work in real sympathy and real support.  

So then, the concept of biblical church membership needs to be thought through.  And before we talk about being added to  a  membership list of our local church  we need  to be clear that  we are right with God.  Sometime  ago  a member  of our church came to me and said that they wanted to resign from membership, because  they felt that they were not  involved in the church  in any meaningful way, and did not attend regularly, and  did not serve the church. That was all true, and we have reason to believe that there was more to that conversation  than meets the eye, but  the bigger question in my own heart was this,  “Is this   dear soul really converted?”   How can you leave that which Christ loves supremely, unless of course your church is not a true church? 

The basis of biblical membership is being right with God. Last week Pastor Brits laid the foundation for today’s message when he preached from John 3:1-8,  ‘You must be born again’. The new birth, being born again from above  is foundational to being and becoming  a member of the church. Whenever this first principle has been disregarded in the life of the church, she will quickly lose her first love. Unconverted members kill the church, because there is no spiritual life in an unconverted person. Unconverted people do not love Jesus. They love an organisation that meets their needs, and helps them when it comes to dealing  with the vital  rituals of life – birth, marriage, death.

Let me help you to see this briefly by appealing to church history. When the early church embraced the practice of baptizing their children, the church  in the afterglow of  the plain  teaching of the apostles grew steadily  lukewarm  as baptized  children became church members  without necessarily experiencing  the new birth.  The church grew, so to speak by infant baptisms rather than by conversions. The  so called  dark  ages which  followed (roughly from the fall of Rome in 496 AD until the Renaissance  – 1500 AD)  were dark because  the church had become  a lukewarm, nominal entity, ruled by a corrupt  regime of popes and political power-brokers.  With few exceptions the reading of the history of the church of that time, including the 9 crusades (1095-1272 AD) doesn’t make for pretty reading. Religious zealotry akin to the Pharisees combined with political idealism ruled the day.   Please understand:  The unconverted heart can only do what it does, and in the hands of Satan the unconverted heart is the most powerful tool to subvert the holiness of the church.  That is why the Reformation was such a tonic. It was a spiritual awakening, and central to that awakening was the preaching of the gospel.  Men like Luther and Calvin and many others preached the gospel, and the Holy Spirit was pleased to blow liberally and many were converted.   Baptists, if we include the  Anabaptists of the  Reformation,  in their nearly 500 years since the Reformation  have substantially believed in the necessity of the new birth as the primary  requirement for  church membership. Conversion would then be followed by baptism and church membership. This is the New Testament practise, and this is where we stand today.  A healthy church is where  people are truly  converted  and  added to the church  by  signifying this in believers baptism.

Returning to the  Metaphor of the Body

Church membership is implied in the metaphor of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:12–31.   There is a unity and organic relationship implied in the imagery of the body. There is something unnatural about a Christian attaching him or herself to a body of believers and not being a member of the body.

That is God’s plan for us and for this church. That is what we mean by membership. The membership list, and going through a series of membership classes  are secondary matters, but they do follow from that great principle of the body metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12. 

So when you are asking, ‘Where  do you find a membership list in the Bible?’  you are asking the wrong question. And  if you are saying, ‘...but I have been hurt in the church  and will not  commit  myself to another’,  then you are  letting  your negative emotions rule  over the truth as it is in Jesus. 

The answer is this - Find a church that  most closely exhibits the true marks of a church   (e.g. Acts 2:42). And if you say, ‘But I am a member of the universal church  of Christ, I don’t need  to belong to a local church‘, then I want you to consider that Paul was writing this letter not to the members  of the universal church, but the local church at Corinth. And he wrote a letter  to the Roman church, the Ephesian church, the  Galatian and Thessalonian churches, the Philippian and Colossian church, as well as the letters to Timothy, Pastor of the local  church at Ephesus.     

Final Appeal

The New Testament knows of no Christians who are not accountable members of a local church in the sense that we have just seen.  The  New Testament indicates  that  to be excluded from the local church was to be excluded from Christ, as in the case of the church discipline  found in 1 Corinthians 5.  Are you committed to discipline and being disciplined according to biblical standards? How can you exclude some from the membership of the church, if they are not recognised as a church member?  

Do you see yourself and your gifts as part of an organic ministering body?

And how do the leaders of a local church know who they are accountable for? 

Have you publicly declared your willingness to be shepherded and to be led by the leaders of a local church?

So then, are you an accountable member of a local church?  The question is not, ‘Is your name somewhere on some membership list?’ It should be.   The question is, are you actively engaged as a member of your local church? Have you said so by way of a public affirmation?   

After all is said and done, remember  that  Church membership begins with the work of the Holy Spirit. He applies the  work of  Jesus  (a blood bought gift) to your heart and He unites you  to other  brothers and sisters in your given locality.  More than most of us realize, it is a life-sustaining, faith-strengthening, joy-preserving means of God’s mercy to us.