The Church Only Having One Class of Believers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bible Verses ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phil. 1:1 Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all
the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the
overseers and deacons.
1 Cor. 1:2 To the church of God which is in Corinth, to
those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called
saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Words of Ministry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Philippians 1:1, which shows that a local church is composed
of the saints [believers] with overseers to take the lead and
deacons to serve, indicates that the church in Philippi was
in good order. Paul did not say "to all the saints and the
overseers and deacons"; he said "all the saints with the
overseers and deacons." The Greek preposition rendered "with"
actually means together with. If Paul had used the
conjunction "and" instead of the preposition "with," this
would indicate that in a local church there should be three
groups of people--the saints, the overseers, and the deacons.
But his use of "with" indicates that there are not three such
groups in the church.
The concept of today's organized Christianity is to have
various distinct classes of people within the church. It is
against the Bible, however, to have different classes of
believers in a local assembly. The New Testament reveals that
in a local church there is a unique group, and this group is
composed of all the saints. Writing under the leading of the
Holy Spirit, Paul wrote in a deliberate, cautious way, using
the preposition "with" and not the conjunction "and." Paul's
use of the preposition instead of the conjunction is very
significant. It indicates that in any locality there should
be just one church, which must include all the saints in that
locality.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(c) Living Stream Ministry. Bible verses are taken from the Recovery
Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study
of Philippians, p. 12. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry,
Anaheim, CA.
Please visit us at www.emanna.com
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