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ON BEING A CHURCH OF CHRIST

There is no one verse in the Bible that says, "A Christian is..." But as the honest seeker of truth reads and studies the New Testament, our Lord's perception of a disciple unfolds before his eyes. And a person is a Christian as far and only as far as he is and does what is set forth in the Scriptures as a disciple of Christ.

Likewise, there is no single passage in the Bible that says "A church of Christ is..." But when an honest-hearted person reads the New Testament, there unfolds before him what the Lord would have His family to be and do. And a congregation is a church of Christ as far and only as far as that church is and does what is set forth in the word of God as the church.

No one has ever read or heard of a perfect Christian or a perfect church, not even in the New Testament. Still, it is better to aim at and reach for that divine perception, than to follow the popular course of comfortably and complacently accepting human substitutes in the doctrines and traditions of men-whoever those men might be.

Obviously there is a point in departure beyond which a person ceases to be a disciple of Christ and a church is no longer a church of Christ. The Lord Himself determines what that point is (Rev. 2:5). Even so, apostasy will be evident to all serious students of the word of God.

In the nineteen centuries of church history there have been men such as Martin Luther and Alexander Campbell who recognized a state of apostasy, and each in his own way tried to call the apostate church back to its original design, either by reformation or restoration.

None of us can honestly deny some influence of these men upon our own thinking (consciously or not). However, that admission doesn't make one a Lutheran or a Campbell-ite or an "heir" of either the reformation or restoration movements.

A person doesn't have to be a Solomon to know that there is so much difference between Christianity in the New Testament and much of what is marketed today with the label of Christianity, that they bear only slight resemblance.

It is appropriate, therefore, even essential to the survival of a Christian or a church to strictly adhere to our Lord's teachings. How can one honestly and intelligently profess discipleship of Christ and not follow His teachings? That's what a disciple is-a learner and follower.

It is our commitment just to be Christians and churches of Christ, unattached to anyone but Jesus Christ. Why should any believer consider that either undesirable or impossible?

Want to know more? Read On..........

In Search of the Lord's Way - Mack Lyon