Years ago, brother Leroy Brownlow penned a helpful book with the title, Why I Am a Member of the Church of Christ. Recently, I was asked to preach a sermon on the subject. I’m no Leroy Brownlow, but I humbly submit these thoughts in article form.
I am a member of the church of Christ for the sake of unity in truth. Christ Jesus prayed on the night before His death that believers in Him would be one as He and the Father are one (John 17:20-21). Such unity between members of the Godhead serves as the example for the kind of unity God desires of His church. That precludes ecumenism, where everybody agrees to disagree on matters of doctrine. It demands adherence to revealed truth on such matters. Paul’s plea was for Christians to “speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10).
As long as I’ve been able to understand language, I’ve known this to be the plea of the church of Christ. Granted, we have some divisions among us. This is due to sin and not due to Christ’s design. To the extent that Christ’s design for the church over which He rules is followed, we achieve unity.
I am a member of the church of Christ for the sake of truth in love. Ephesians 4:1-16 is an excellent passage on the achieving of unity. Two factors are required: (1) Truth, and (2) Attitude. Both factors are of equal importance.
In “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (4:3), Christians must be characterized by “lowliness and gentleness, forbearing with one another in love” (4:2). There are seven items on which they must agree: The one body, the one Spirit, the one hope, the one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God (4:4-6). However, agreement upon doctrine does not end there.
God set up a system of teaching from that early age onward, which was revealed through the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (4:11). The purpose of this was to build up the saints (4:12) “till we all come to the unity of the faith” (4:13). That is, teaching in love brings people to unity. Thus, the oft-quoted phrase from Ephesians 4:15 is central to achieving unity: We must be “speaking the truth in love.”
I am a member of the church of Christ for the sake of the pattern of truth. I am well aware of the mockery of pattern theology, but it is still a biblical concept and demand. “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus,” wrote Paul in 2 Timothy 1:13.
In the Mosaic Law, during a time when God was teaching by physical things about the nature of spiritual things to come, “Moses was divinely instructed… ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’” (Hebrews 8:5; Exodus 25:40). God required adherence to a pattern under the Old Law, which served to teach about “the copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5).
The argument of Hebrews is essentially, “If things were a certain way under the old law, how much more are they so under the new law?” (Hebrews 2:1-4; 10:26-29). Now that Christ is “Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6), should we expect that no adherence to a pattern is required?
We are, contrary to the cries of many cheap grace advocates, still “under law toward Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:21). In spiritual things as well, the pattern must be followed.
There is a pattern in the New Testament narrative for the church to function in worship, salvation and living. To achieve unity, this pattern must be preached in love.
Not everyone wearing the name “church of Christ” is practicing the things that would identify them as the church our Lord built and bought (Matthew 16:18; Acts 20:28). There are even other biblical designations, all giving glory to God, not man (1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Timothy 3:15). I am, on purpose, a member of the church of Christ because I want to do my best to submit to the authority of God and to experience the love and unity He designed and desires.
