The Perfect Church

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     Many casual students of the primitive church have a very distorted picture of conditions prevailing among the early disciples. There is a widespread notion that perfect agreement prevailed upon all matters, that a specific pattern was immediately given and that all concurred in it without discussion or deviation. This viewpoint is unrealistic and contrary to fact.

     Those who first acknowledged Jesus as Lord and Christ were Jews. They brought with them into their new relationship the prejudices and partisan ideas which had motivated them in the past. There is no indication that they ever intended to become "a church of Christ." It is far more probable that they expected to constitute a synagogue of Messianic Jews with a membership composed of those who regarded Jesus of Nazareth as having fulfilled "what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets." Certainly it was not their intention to allow anyone to participate with them who had never been circumcised. It was some of their own members who went to foreign cities and taught the Gentile converts that "unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses you cannot be saved."

     Peter did not understand the full implication of his own words spoken under impulse of the Spirit when he declared that "the promise is unto...all them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God doth call." Several years later when the time had arrived to share the promise with some who were "afar off" it was necessary for God to perform a miracle upon him before he would take the good news to a Gentile. Even during the trance into which he fell Peter hastened to remind God that he had been orthodox with reference to kosher foods. When he returned from his mission, happy to be back again with the apostles and brethren in Jerusalem, he was censured by the circumcision party in the congregation for going to visit and

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eating with uncircumcised men. He hastened to assure them that it was not his idea, and that it was either go or withstand God, so he went.

     The believers still worshipped daily in the temple and retained their membership in the synagogues. Many years later the elders of the congregation at Jerusalem pointed out to Paul "how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed; they are all zealous for the law." They urged Paul to engage in a certain temple ritual so "all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you but that you yourself live in observance of the law." Paul actually circumcised Timothy because of the Jews in the area surrounding his home "for they all knew that his father was a Greek."

     Not only was there race prejudice with reference to the uncircumcised but there was provincial feeling between Hebrews and Hellenists. The former were Palestinian Jews and more rigid in their separation and exclusiveness. The others had grown up in Greek-speaking areas of the Roman Empire and were bi-lingual. One of the first areas of tension among the disciples in Jerusalem arose over a charge of favoritism. The Hellenists charged the Hebrews with being partial in the daily distribution of food commodities.

     But does not the record say "the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul"? Indeed it does but we must not interpret this to mean that they had no problems of adjustment, no controversies or variations of opinion. They were one because of their recognition of Jesus as the Messiah. They were a company of men and women who realized that in their very city "there were gathered together...against Jesus...both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel." They were one because they shared in the hope kindled by his resurrection and because "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." But they were still in the flesh and subject to human frailty and shortcomings.

     Perhaps the "perfect church" has never existed anywhere on earth. True, we have an infallible God, a perfect Savior, and a complete revelation. But we are the church. We are the members who constitute the one body. And we are in various stages of growth. Not one of us is perfect. The perfect church is an ideal toward which each generation must strive in the light of the revelation. "We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone." But it is still true that "the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord." Let us not become discouraged by our failures and weaknesses. Let us do our best and believe that through his grace and the cleansing power of his blood, Jesus may yet "present the church to himself all glorious, with no stain or wrinkle or anything of the sort." This will be the Lord's doing--not ours--and it will be marvelous in our sight!