Day 17

“Greet also the church that meets at their house…”

—ROMANS 16:5

If we think of the ‘church’ as a building where we meet, we will get ideas that bricks and mortar is itself sanctified. We hear people sometimes call the building they meet in, ‘the house of God’. I have heard people pray on a Sunday morning, “Lord, we come into your presence this morning”, as though coming into a particular building has brought us into the presence of God.

Yes, there is a sense in which as we meet corporately we are being built together to be a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. The corporate gathering of God’s people may often give us an awareness of His presence that we may lack alone; but if His presence is associated with a building, then leave the building and we leave His presence. The church of the New Testament was never defined by buildings. In fact, it seems they did not own buildings for the first three hundred years of Christian existence – possibly to their advantage, for their ground of gathering was Christ Himself, not a piece of real estate.

The true ‘church’ is the people of God – men and women, boys and girls who have been incorporated into Christ, through the appropriation of His death as a substitute for their death for sin, and having been forgiven, are enjoying the resurrection life of Christ indwelling them. It is we who are the temple of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6.19), and corporately the means of Jesus Christ expressing His life and purpose in our world today. It is convenient for us to meet in buildings set aside for that purpose, but do not confuse the building for the church.

If we do, we may well fall into the trap of dividing our life into categories of ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’, where some things have to do with God, and some things don’t. There will be some things we relate to God (we will pray for missionaries and church activities), but some things we relate only to ourselves (so we will omit to pray for our workplace and friends). When believers are the church, rather than go to church we will live every day in His strength and for His objectives.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, It is wonderful to know that the ‘true’ church isn’t a piece of real estate but men, women and children indwelt by your Spirit, and therefore always in your presence. Thank You, Lord, for your indwelling Spirit that makes us your church.

TO REFLECT UPON: Do I have an awareness of myself being God’s church along with every Christian and am I in His presence all the time?