Max Lucado is a wonderful and inspiring writer. Few writers can match his ability to bring fresh insights, infuse substance, and bring clarity to both the commonplace and complex things of life. One of his recent website posts was titled Simply ‘Church’.” He posed two questions, “…what would happen if all the churches agreed, on a given day, to change their names simply to ‘church’?…if there are no denominations in heaven, why do we have denominations on earth?” His point was that we should not attend a church based on the sign outside, but we should join our hearts to the like-minded hearts of the people on the inside. [Max Lucado]
This is a noble sentiment and reflects the Apostle Paul’s admonition to the Romans, “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [Romans 15: 5-6. KJV] In other words, the church should be in unity in thought and message. Matthew Henry stated, “The foundation of Christian love and peace is laid in like-mindedness. This like-mindedness must be according to Christ Jesus…” In other words, Christ should be our pattern because the unity of Christians glorifies God. However, Henry warns that our prayers for like-mindedness “…must be first for truth, and then for peace…it is first pure, then peaceable.”
Max Lucado’s “Simply Church” may have worked in first century Israel for there were few churches and just one Christian church. But we live in twenty-first century America with many communities that have churches on almost every corner. There are many religions, thousands of denominations, and hundreds of thousands of churches. In America most are Christian churches, each professing to be a follower of Jesus Christ. So, using the Simply Church model, how does one know which church to join oneself with? How does one know whether the people inside are like-minded? Attend one Sunday? No, first impressions are often not reliable proofs of like-mindedness. Then attend a year? No, for one can spend much of life searching for instead of fellowshipping with like-minded Christians. Thus, discovering like-minded believers without using labels can be a difficult and time-consuming task.
Labels are useful and compatible with divine order. God used labels during the Creation. He labeled trees in the Garden…the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He labeled the rivers going out of Eden. God brought the animals to Adam to see what he would call them, “…and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” And from Adam’s side He made him a wife who “shall be called Woman.” [Genesis 2:9-23. KJV]
In our search for like-mindedness with other Christians, we must return to Matthew Henry’s admonition that our quest must first be for truth and then for peace. In that quest for truth, labels are invaluable and become a type of shorthand for what we know to be true or not true (the written word as well as symbols, e.g., fish symbol, the cross, the dove).
Throughout the ages language has been the means of achieving order in culture. Knowledge of truth comes through the word which provides solidity in the “shifting world of appearances.” Richard Weaver called words the storehouse of our memory. In our modern age humanists have effectively used semantics to neuter words of their meaning in historical and symbolic contexts, that is, words now mean what men want them to mean. By removing the fixities of language (which undermines an understanding of truth), language loses its ability to define and compel. As the meaning of words is divorced from truth, relativism gains supremacy, and a culture tends to disintegration without an understanding of eternal truths upon which to orient its self. [Richard Weaver]
Therefore, the problem with simply “Church” is that we live in a fallen world, and there are competing voices each professing truth. Removing the labels and being simply “Church” won’t work when we must give priority to truth. Without truth, simply “Church” won’t achieve like-mindedness in a world immersed in a relativistic sea of shifting appearances. In such a world labels become our anchors to truth.
I am thankful for my denomination, and I’m thankful that it is not labeled simply “Church.” Without its label, many like-minded Christians would drive on by not knowing they have a fellow believer on the inside. Although I believe my denomination has the best understanding of God’s truth, I have no animosity towards other Christians who genuinely seek God and believe their understanding of biblical truth is more accurate than mine. I wish them well for we are all followers of Jesus Christ on this earth and like-minded on the truths of the major tenets of our faith. And we’ll all be members of simply Church when we get to heaven.
Labels also help us identify those with whom we should not be in fellowship. The Bible says that there are many churches with misleading labels who have false prophets and false teachers that have abandoned biblical truth and will not be a part of that gathering in heaven. Also, other religions have labels that may accurately depict what’s on the inside, but what’s on the inside is a false religion whose god is not the great I AM and does not lead to truth or a heavenly home.
When traveling I have occasionally driven along the streets of a city unfamiliar to me in search of a church to attend. First, I spot a cross on top of a steeple in the distance. I then look for the label on that local branch of Christianity. In a few seconds I have some understanding of the truth held by those inside and whether they are like-minded or not. I like labels here on earth, but I’m glad we won’t need them in heaven and that we’ll be simply ‘Church.’
Larry G. Johnson
Sources:
Max Lucado, “Simply ‘Church’,” Max Lucado, November 4, 2013. http://808bo.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/max-lucado-simply-church/ (accessed November 6, 2013).
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1961), p.1794.
Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences, (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1948), pp. 148-149, 152, 158, 163.
Thanks Larry,
I know i will like my heavenly CHURCH and thankful that soooooo many like minded friends from many different lables will join with me there.
Now i think Im hungry ….lets get a burger…. Hum? Vegie burger that leads to life or a super duper sized Big Mack that leads to death. Hum? Guess you are right …lables are for this world. In Heaven it will simply be called manna!