The Ten Commandments Cross

Next week I will continue my series on Ten Commandments for Church Failure (http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/ten-commandments-for-church-failure/) with an article on the first one: Thou shalt not take risks. However, I was impressed to respond to a controversial concept from the emergent church movement that tends to reject traditional church structures including membership. I recently read and commented on a blog in which the author presented a good biblical argument favoring the traditional concept of church membership. The author based his argument on passages in which Jesus discussed church discipline suggesting that some sense of formal belonging to a church fellowship is required for church discipline to work. (http://areopagus.us/home/2008/12/10/is-church-membership-biblical/)

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (NLT) It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

Taking a more positive biblical approach, I offer a case for church membership from the Ten Commandments recorded in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Jesus made the connection between the Law and Prophets with his two Great Commandments (Matthew 22:37-40) when he stated that they summarize both.

Matthew 22:37-40 (NKJV) Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Consider what I call the Ten Commandments Cross: The first three commandments are symbolized by the vertical part of the cross representing an individual’s relationship with God. The last six commandments are symbolized by the horizontal part of the cross representing an individual’s relationship with people. However, returning to the fourth commandment, it is symbolized by the intersection of the vertical and horizontal parts of the cross representing God’s greatest desire for humankind: to worship God together in harmony and restorative relationships. The concept above is an integral part of Simple Discipleship: A Process for Making Disciples.

I agree there are many forms a church may take that are legitimate, and they may not always reflect a traditional approach; however, whatever form a church adopts must be based on Christ’s concept of “the Bride” and it must be based squarely on the Bible. Many people actually reject the bureaucratic part of traditional churches but they express it as a rejection of organized religion. Any time two or three people make a plan to meet at a particular time and place to worship, they have organized. Many efforts to free the church from traditional forms are motivated by a rejection of negative characteristics of “organized religion.”

The Ten Commandments Cross, and, I might add, the Simple Discipleship cross both reflect God’s desire that we truly understand that we are ministers of reconciliation:

2 Corinthians 5:18 (NKJV) Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
 

SD Blessings,
Dr. Tom Cocklereece

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