December 28

Revelation 2:7
WE need to distinguish between the Church, the Body of Christ, which includes all God’s children in this dispensation of grace, and local churches of God, which are responsible groups of believers meeting together for Christian fellowship and testimony. Christ Himself builds what He calls “My Church” (Matt. 16:1818And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)). The building of local churches is committed in large measure to His servants (1 Cor. 3:1010According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. (1 Corinthians 3:10)). As Paul went from place to place, when people were saved he was used of God to gather them out from the world and into the fellowship of the churches, or assemblies of God, where they would be nurtured and edified and could maintain a testimony in their respective communities to His saving grace. These churches were directly responsible to Christ Himself, while they maintained communion with each other as representatives of the one gloried Head. (See 1 Thess. 2:1414For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: (1 Thessalonians 2:14)). in the beginning there was but the one great circle of Christian fellowship. Unhappily, divisions almost innumerable have come in, through human infirmity, throughout the Christian centuries, but the closer the churches keep to the divine pattern laid down in the Book of Acts and in the apostolic letters to the churches, the more we shall have the Lord’s approval and blessing. We cannot undo the mistakes of the past, but we can cleave to the Lord and the Word of His grace, and so be kept from much that is unscriptural and divisive,
“Head of the Church triumphant,
We joyfully adore Thee!
Till Thou appear, Thy members here
Would sing like those in glory.
We lift our hearts and voices.
In blest anticipation,
And cry aloud and give to God
The praise of our salvation.”
―C. Wesley.