Subject: Where does membership come from? |
Bible Note: Hi, jalanlambert! I respect you opinion... still it is my obligation to counsel you to rethink your position. True, we are in the world. But we are not meant to be of the world. The Church was established by Christ and it is our duty as Christians to nourish and maintain the Body of Christ--not the Spiritual Body, in which we have no authority nor means to influence as we are only made in God's image--and not God. But the physical Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head and the Foundation. Instead of looking at man and his limitations, we should seek the Lord and labor to correct the errors found in the Church: we should'nt strive to dismantle the Church since God has ordained her!: since, as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Chruch is subject to Christ, so should wives be to their husbands, in everythig. husbands should love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy by washing her in cleansing water with a form of words, so that when he took the Church to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbans must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because we are parts of his Body. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh. This mystery has great significance, but I am applying it to Christ and the Church. (Ephesians 5:23-32) God Bless! Angel |