THE WASHING OF THE WORD
Ephesians 5:26 (NIV)—Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing of the water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
In this edition of Locusts and Honey, I want us to consider the above scripture. In one sense, most of us realize that the church becomes clean through the blood of the Lamb. Jesus takes our sins and makes them “whiter than snow.” A miracle occurs when we become a Christian. The filthy rags of our life are washed in the blood of the lamb and through that blood miraculously become white. Our rags are transformed into the marriage and feasting garments that are supplied by the One who calls us to the feast-God Himself. That is a miracle. However, it does not end.
We are called for a holy purpose. That purpose includes becoming a holy people and doing the work of God which is to destroy the work of Satan through men and women who believe and follow Jesus Christ. Good works will not save us; however we will not become holy without good works. We are saved for a purpose and that purpose is to do good works.
If you are like me, you want to see the Church become the “radiant” church and to shine brightly in a dark world. Instead the church has become an object of derision. We tolerate false shepherds who commit adultery and whose desire for wealth is open and shameful. We show disunity and fail to love one another. One must ask how our churches, at least those in the United States, have fallen to such an abysmal state. Many of our churches put the churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation to shame.
Due to our weak and debilitated state we are experiencing a “great falling away.” Over the past generations, a number of people have joined the church not because of faith in Christ but in order to further their careers and their social status. Instead of there being a cost to becoming a Christian they joined for the “benefits” of Christianity. Some of the benefits were social but others were economic. Many have hoped to improve their wealth by following the religious formulas for wealth accumulation—“Name and Claim it.” Now it is true that following Christ is likely to bring wealth by its nature. For instance, if you are a heavy drinker or drug user and due to becoming a Christian these vices are eradicated, your wealth as a natural principle can’t help but increase. However, those who “become Christian” to further their wealth will invariably be disappointed.
Many years ago, I sat around a table at my law school and listened to a bunch of senior law students discuss which church they were going to join when they graduated in order to further their legal careers and obtain clients. These same attorneys had not attended any church while in law school. It was all done for wealth.
Early missionaries to China saw the same thing happen. Many Chinese joined the church for the free rice handouts. They were called “Rice Christians.” When the rice stopped, they stopped attending. Today we have many “Rice Christians” and they are starting to fall away. Jesus predicted all of this when he talked about the seeds that were sown and as the sun came up and there was persecution, those who had joined when things were nice, fell away. Today, as there is less benefit to being a Christian (and often a penalty for being one) the Rice Christians are falling away. We are only in the middle of this process. As persecution for our beliefs increases, we will continue to see more fall away. On the other hand, they were not really with us anyway. As the offended and carnal fall away, the church will indeed shine more brightly.
Part of our failure to shine brightly results from the fact that we have not been washed in the water of the word. This has happened for a number of reasons. One of them is that we individually have not spent sufficient time washing ourselves in the word of God. By bathing ourselves in the word of God and in prayer, we will shine more brightly in the world. The reason we don’t do this is our flesh. We default to God’s grace instead of doing the hard work of making ourselves holy on a day to day basis.
The world is our drug. And like most addicts, we are addicted to the world. You who have had addicts in your family, know that addicts will do anything for a fix. They will sell themselves or even family members to get the next fix. The carnal church has become addicted to the world. It will do anything to get the approbation of the world and to get the benefits of success. What steps will we not take to get the next “sinner” through the door. If we need to act like a nightclub or have our churches be like the Bachelor (Christian, of course), we gladly do so. 1 John 2:15 says: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.”
Another reason why our churches are not washed in the word of Christ is that after all of this time, we for some reason, cannot understand the ministry gifts. We claim to understand them and yet constantly confuse the ministry gift of being an evangelist with the gift of being a pastor-teacher ( Note: this edition does not deal with where there is one or two gifts or the differences between ministries and gifts). Instead of selecting pastor-teachers to lead the church, we love to select evangelists to lead our churches. The evangelist focuses upon the salvation message. They get people “through the door” and evangelists are an integral part of the church. However, instead of utilizing a leadership of multiplicity, we select a leadership model which looks like a pyramid with the evangelist at the top. We then confuse things even further by calling the “evangelist” a “pastor.” It is no wonder people are confused. In the smallest churches, there is often only an evangelist called a “pastor” who leads it. Surprisingly many churches do not grow. They find that people are flocking to come in the front door and then are secretly leaving through the back door. People scratch their heads and wonder why. The answer is simple, the people are not being fed by pastors and teachers. They join the church and then are not fed often hearing the evangelistic sermon cooked a thousand different ways but always at the end tasting the same. In short, people need the washing of the word. The evangelistic message preached over and over is not the “washing of the word.”
People need to hear the word of God regularly preached. In addition to salvation, they need to know that we are to love one another, we are to work with our hands, we are to give to the poor, we are to lead humble lives and that we are to live holy lives and when necessary endure with patience suffering and tribulation. These are not popular messages. In other areas of life we expect discipline. We know we are to eat right and exercise regularly. It is not easy. The same is true spiritually. To become holy, we must engage in regular and consistent spiritual disciplines and exercises. Just like we have a nation of couch potatoes, we have developed a church full of spiritual couch potatoes. It is time for us to get up and exercise ourselves spiritually. Regular and consistent Bible Reading, prayer and attending worship and washings of the word are a discipline.
To conclude, Christ allows us a role in becoming the bride with a white garment and a sparkling witness to the world. That role involves being “washed in the word.” We need to be washed in the word in the corporate gatherings of the word, through the ministry of those moving in the gifts of pastor and teacher. Also we need to be washed in the word individually through the disciplines of becoming holy by regularly having personal Bible study and prayer.
Until next time, keep on hopping.
