Many people, when thinking about a good church, have an idea of a beautiful church building with good seating arrangements, good parking, and a lawn where I can walk. This kind of person does not care about the service or the sermon. That kind of church, they think is an ideal church. This is not the picture of a true church. The Book of Acts tells us about the picture of a good church, but before we discuss the virtues, we need to know what the church is.
Definition and Meaning of a Church
CHURCH. This word comes from German (KIRCHE) which means belonging to the Lord. A God's family church, in Christian doctrine, is the Christian religious community as a whole, or a body or organization of Christian believers.
The Greek word ekklēsia, which came to mean church, was originally applied in the Classical period to an official assembly of citizens. In the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the Old Testament (3rd–2nd century BCE), the term ekklēsia is used for the general assembly of the Jewish people, especially when gathered for a religious purpose such as hearing the Law (e.g., Deuteronomy 9:10, 18:16). In the New Testament it is used of the entire body of believing Christians throughout the world (e.g., Matthew 16:18), of the believers in a particular area (e.g., Acts 5:11), and also of the congregation meeting in a particular house—the “house-church” (e.g., Romans 16:5). For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. (Matthew. 18. 20)
Even if there is a small group of people and Jesus is present there. This is a church. A community of people that follow the Teachings of Christ. There should be some virtues in church and I am going to describe it with some points.
A Community of Believers.
As we know the church is a body of believers and they have faith that Jesus is their Savior and they practice the teachings of Christ. The book of Acts tells that this kind of community spends time in prayer and fasting and they reflect the true picture of Christ in this world.
Unity of Church.
The second virtue of the church is unity and oneness. The church should be united. God does not want to see a scattered church. Today unity is the basic need of the church. Right now in my country the church is divided into many groups and people are not ready to accept each other living in the same church. Church unity means reconciliation and love with each other. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. ( Ephesians 4:3 )
Paul advises that they always try to reconcile and the Holy Spirit can maintain this reconciliation.
( Philippians 4:2) I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.
In this church, there was a dispute between two sisters and Paul advised them to live in peace.
The Witnessing Church
Testimony means to share your personal experience with God through Jesus Christ. How Jesus changes your life and this experience shares with others that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of the world. The church is the witness of the living Christ and the early church is the witness of the living Christ and the early church shares this testimony in the world.
(Acts 4:33) The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master, Jesus, and grace was on all of them.
The apostles were witnesses of the living Christ and they boldly testified about him.
Dear friends, let's consider today about the church. Beloved, let us think about the church today. Do we have the qualities of the early church?
Are we a united church and witness for Christ? Let us pray for our object that God will instill these qualities in them that we may bring glory to his name.
Pastor Barkat is a graduate of Punjab University. After receiving a call to ministry in 1999 he attended Gujranwala Theological Seminary, graduating in 2003 with a Master of Divinity (His thesis covered a Biblical model of house churches.) Upon graduating he started pastoral ministry with the Anglican Church and was ordained in 2004, working within that church in different positions until mid 2015 when he got the opportunity for a short training program on Pneumatology from South Korea. Suneel currently is a visiting teacher in an evangelical Bible College empowered by Korean Mission in Pakistan, as well as doing independent teaching and preaching ministry. He has established many Bible study groups and I have passion to preach in remote areas of Pakistan.