Astronomers in the 1840s predicted the position of the as yet undiscovered planet Neptune after observing disturbances in the orbit of the planet Uranus. After Neptune’s discovery in the late 19th century, astronomers speculated that another planet was effecting Uranus’ orbit besides Neptune. This led to the 36 year search for the body originally known as “Planet X”, now known as Pluto (or more accurately as of 2006, the dwarf planet 134430 Pluto).
Many of the biggest discoveries in astronomy have come about this same way – through first observing the shadow of the object, that is, its effects on its neighbors. These effects have led to the speculation and discovery of much of what we now know as fact.
In the same way, though there is no explicit Scriptural command to unite formally with a church, we do find in Scripture the shadow, the tell-tale marks of church membership. These marks of church membership which litter the pages of Scripture are the basis for our practice, found in our covenant God himself and worked out in his people.
In our covenant God
The greatest example of love is God’s love for us in sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. However, this was not an informal relationship between God and his people. Throughout Scripture, God reiterates his formal commitment to his people – we call these covenants. Immediately after sin enters the world, we see God making a commitment to his people, promising in Genesis 3 to send a seed to crush the serpent’s head. When he makes his promise to Abraham to make his descendants into a great nation and to be their God, he himself acts out a covenant signing ceremony (Genesis 17) and gives them a sign by which all will know of that relationship (circumcision). When he brings his people from slavery in Egypt, he formalizes it through the covenant with Moses where he receives the ten commandments (Exodus 20). He makes a covenant with David to set one of his descendants on his throne forever (2 Samuel 7). Through the prophet Jeremiah, he speaks of a new covenant where he will write his law on his people’s hearts and he will be their God and they will be his people (Jeremiah 31). And Christ himself speaks of this new covenant sealed in his blood when he gives his church the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or Communion (Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 22:14-23; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). In these covenants, God swears an oath, binding himself to his people that he will be their God and they will be his people (Exodus 6, Isaiah 43), and then guarantees that bond with the blood of Christ (). The very God of the universe formalizes his commitment, his bond with his people.
Seen in his people
He does not leave it there. He calls his people to follow his example and bind themselves to him. We see it in the covenant renewal ceremonies (see Deuteronomy 29 and Joshua 24 for two), where God’s people pledge themselves to him in response to his love. We see it in the Lord’s Supper as we eat the bread and drink the cup to proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again, the new covenant in his blood – to publicly announce the act that makes our relationship with God possible. We see it in God’s repeated call to his people to care for one another both spiritually (for example, John 13:34-45; Romans 12:3-8; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15; Hebrews 10:24-25) and physically (for example, Acts 2:44-45, 11:29-30; 1 John 3:17).
Throughout the New Testament we see this lived out in the example of the early church. We see the Lord “adding to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47, also in 5:14 and 16:5). We see the requirements for a widow to be enrolled to be cared for by the church (1 Timothy 5:9). We see churches writing letters of recommendation to the church in another region when a member moved (Acts 18:27; Romans 16:1; Colossians 4:10; also mentioned in 2 Corinthians 3:1-2).
And tellingly, we see it in the establishment of a means of governing in the church – in the very existence of elders and deacons. These were men called by God to lead and have authority in his church as they shepherd the flock of God (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:1-5), exercise oversight (1 Thessalonians 5:12; 1 Timothy 5:17; 1 Peter 5:1-5), and keep watch over their souls, giving an account for them (Hebrews 13:17).
Conclusion
The practice of formally committing ourselves to the local body of Christ has a strong Scriptural basis. The life of God’s people throughout history has been a corporate life, a life lived together before God. As we seek to live out our life in him today, we find that we can only do this by proclaiming our faith in him publicly as we commit ourselves to the church, not just in some vague sense, but in its fullest sense. Only then can we truly live out Jesus’ command to his disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).