The Ideal Church

Acts 2.42-47 describes the ideal church God designed. This is what God did for them … it is what He wants to do for us … as we do what He wants for Him.

The Spirit’s role in the activity of the first Christians is noteworthy. Besides His work of regeneration, Acts 2.38-39, His work on making Christians one with God and each other is also on display, Acts 2.42-47. What makes the called out body described in these verses different from any other group of humans is the  true unity and togetherness the Spirit provides through the production of unselfish love, Galatians 5.22-23.

Outside of the church, most of the groups to which we may belong are usually not driven by a desire for togetherness as much as they are selfishness. People can belong to group driven by common interests, but that does not mean they are truly together.

What makes the church special is that because of the Spirit’s work inside each believer, Christians become one with God and with each other … as seen in the fruit of sacrificial love, submission to each other, unconditional forgiveness, bearing with one another, patience, compassion, and kindness. What we see in Acts 2.42-47 is an unfolding of the love as it was meant to be inside the church.  

Lloyd Ogilvie defines the church as this:
the fellowship of those given by Christ to be to each other what He has been to them, so that together they can be to the world a demonstration of the new humanity He died and lives to make possible.

What happens to cause local churches to lose sight of and experience the ideal? What can we do to get back this unblemished authenticity inside our congregations today?