Why Affirm and Remove Members?
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven." – Matt 16:19
The Bible assumes meaningful, local church membership. There are no Christians in the Bible who are converted and then just wander around following Jesus alone, they are immediately connected to a physical local body of believers as “members” of that body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-27). When adopted into the family of God, you don’t just get a new Father, but also new siblings that you are called to. We see this assumption of membership in things like Paul’s reference to a majority of the Corinthian church (2 Cor. 2:6), in the special obligations members have to one another, in the command to submit to and support specific elders and elders to oversee specific sheep (Heb 13:17, 1 Tim 5:17-18), in the command to remove people from the body (cf. 1 Cor 5:1-13, 2 Thess 3:6, 14-15, 1 Tim 1:20, Titus 3:10-11) - as clearly to be removed one must be first meaningfully joined - and more.
But why does the church get to say who is and is not a member?
The church, as God’s eternal plan of victory, as his means to display his wisdom to the Cosmos (Eph 3:10), as the entity that will advance successfully against the gates of hell (Matt 16:18), as Christ’s plan for expanding his kingdom on earth after he ascends, is given the “Keys of the Kingdom” by Christ to “bind and loose” (Matt 16:19); this is the first command given to the church and one of the primary ways the Kingdom is to be established and advanced on earth. What this means, proven by the usage of the same language in the only other place in Matthew’s gospel that the church is mentioned (Matt 18:15-20), is to remove, or “loose,” from the body (membership) the unrepentant rebel who doesn’t know Christ and to affirm, or “bind,” to the body the repentant believer who does know Christ.
This first command given to the church is a command for the church to act as a foreign embassy, not Making someone a citizen of heaven, but “stamping their passport” and declaring to them, to the church, and to the world that that is what they are already by God’s graceful hand.
Churches that fail to take up these keys as commanded fail to serve the individuals well as false assurance is given to the goats while real assurance is withheld from the sheep. They fail to serve the church well by failing to protect the sheep and to treat sin seriously. They fail to serve the community well by portraying us as hypocrites. And they don't serve the cosmos well by failing to be the corporate display of God’s glory and wisdom as it is intended to be because we’re allowing those without God’s Spirit to be identified with his people.
The church will not be perfect here, but it can be faithful.
The Bible assumes meaningful, local church membership. There are no Christians in the Bible who are converted and then just wander around following Jesus alone, they are immediately connected to a physical local body of believers as “members” of that body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-27). When adopted into the family of God, you don’t just get a new Father, but also new siblings that you are called to. We see this assumption of membership in things like Paul’s reference to a majority of the Corinthian church (2 Cor. 2:6), in the special obligations members have to one another, in the command to submit to and support specific elders and elders to oversee specific sheep (Heb 13:17, 1 Tim 5:17-18), in the command to remove people from the body (cf. 1 Cor 5:1-13, 2 Thess 3:6, 14-15, 1 Tim 1:20, Titus 3:10-11) - as clearly to be removed one must be first meaningfully joined - and more.
But why does the church get to say who is and is not a member?
The church, as God’s eternal plan of victory, as his means to display his wisdom to the Cosmos (Eph 3:10), as the entity that will advance successfully against the gates of hell (Matt 16:18), as Christ’s plan for expanding his kingdom on earth after he ascends, is given the “Keys of the Kingdom” by Christ to “bind and loose” (Matt 16:19); this is the first command given to the church and one of the primary ways the Kingdom is to be established and advanced on earth. What this means, proven by the usage of the same language in the only other place in Matthew’s gospel that the church is mentioned (Matt 18:15-20), is to remove, or “loose,” from the body (membership) the unrepentant rebel who doesn’t know Christ and to affirm, or “bind,” to the body the repentant believer who does know Christ.
This first command given to the church is a command for the church to act as a foreign embassy, not Making someone a citizen of heaven, but “stamping their passport” and declaring to them, to the church, and to the world that that is what they are already by God’s graceful hand.
Churches that fail to take up these keys as commanded fail to serve the individuals well as false assurance is given to the goats while real assurance is withheld from the sheep. They fail to serve the church well by failing to protect the sheep and to treat sin seriously. They fail to serve the community well by portraying us as hypocrites. And they don't serve the cosmos well by failing to be the corporate display of God’s glory and wisdom as it is intended to be because we’re allowing those without God’s Spirit to be identified with his people.
The church will not be perfect here, but it can be faithful.
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