(Originally typed up May 19, 2004)
What Is the Church’s Relation to the World?
Before answering this question, I need to define what my question means by, “Church”:
- Church
- The Body of Christ as a whole
- Everybody in the world who acknowledges Jesus as their Lord and Savior
- Those of us who follow Jesus as His disciples
- Those of us who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
- We are the Church.
God created everything. That is what we believe. Often times when we read about people in the Bible who obeyed God, we intend to learn about how they acted, what they did, how they treated others, and sometimes even how we can imitate them in certain situations. For example:
- The creation story and how Adam saw Eve is often used in arguments about women’s position in the church, and marriage;
- Abraham is often looked at for his faith to leave everything and follow God, also the issues of his two sons
- Moses in his humility, frustrations, and leadership
- Job in his sufferings and refusing to curse God in them
- Even the Apostles in their learning and failures.
These were people of God who God counted as righteous. If we want to know God, we can look to them and their lives to get a basic idea. Plus, Jesus said that if we know Him, we know the Father, and if we have seen Him, then we have seen the Father, for everything Jesus did and said, came from the Father. It was also in Jesus’ obedience to God that glorified God.
Christians are called to represent Jesus, and thus God in all we do. Notice that in the Gospels, when somebody asked Jesus who He was, or if He was the Messiah, Jesus never gave them a straight yes or no answer. Instead, He reminded them of what He’d done, for the works and wonders should speak for themselves. In the same way, we’re called and commanded to represent Jesus in all our works and deeds, and how we behave towards one another.
Love One Another
In John 15:17, Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another. How should they love one another? Jesus used His own love for them as a model. Therefore, in the same way that Jesus loved His disciples, they must love one another also. And when the world sees how we Christians are treating one another, the world will be interested, and come to know God, and realize that He sent Jesus.
We are also to treat our non-Christian neighbors in such ways that portray Christ. When Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, He used two cultures, one that belongs to God through means of religion, and another that is of another type of religion (or who practices differently). At the end of the parable, we learn that we should treat our neighbors in the same way that we treat one another, with love.
How Are We To Conduct Our Lives?
Every New Testament letter talks about how we who are in the Body of Christ are supposed to conduct our lives. The Gospel of John is all about showing people who Jesus is in order that they may believe in Him, which gives glory to God. Both Matthew and Mark end with the great commission to go out and tell everyone everywhere about the Good News. And Luke ends with Jesus telling His disciples that they are His witnesses to the Good News.
“Evangelize always…and if you must, use words.” –St. Francis
The Church is Christ’s witness to the world. Because of our behaviors, how we love one another, and live as Christ’s witnesses, we are called to represent God to the world.
Bottom line, the Church is God’s billboard. It is the banner to the world saying, “If you want to know what God is like, watch us…we’ll show you.” Also, “If you want to know God, then get to know us, for we are His children, and we take on the character/image of the Father.”
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