Coming back home to faith.

"This people honors me with their lips. but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. He was also saying to them, You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition" (Mark 7:6-9).


1. All believers possess the Spirit of Christ (v.13).

2. This common Spirit works in all believers (vv.4-7).

3. The goal of spiritual gifts is mutual edification (vv.7,11).

4. The church is a body, whose members all have a vital function (vv.12, l5-18, 21-22).

5. Ministry in the assembly  does not focus in one member, but many (vv.14, 19; cf. Appendix A).

6. The many members, because of their personal union with Christ, have a living relationship with one another (vv.12, 25-26).

7. The body cannot function without its parts, and the functioning (priesthood) of the parts is necessary for the unity of the body (vv.17, 25, 27).

This construction is further borne out in the context. Verse 16 reveals Christ as joining the whole body together. The emphasis here, as in 1 Cor 12, falls on the total body ministry, not the exclusive ministry of pastors.
The elders' function is a crucial part of the edification process. But the broader body ministry unto edification is specifically mentioned two times in v.16: (1) "every joint supplies"; (2) "in the measure of every part." Thus, edification is not conceived of as being achieved by the ministry of one part (the "pastor"), but by a mutual ministry of every part. In summing up this general N.T. perspective, we can say that:

All believers are 'ministers' (believer-priests) who have been gifted by God so that they may lovingly build up their spiritual brothers and sisters.... each Christian has received a spiritual gift... A gift is a special ability given graciously by God to each person in Christ's Body to help others toward spiritual maturity (Sixteen Tests of An Authentic New Testament assembly , Fellowship Bible assembly [l980], p.25).
In light of this, the service of elders and deacons must be viewed against the backdrop of the general priesthood of believers. They serve as an important part in the edification of the body; they do not constitute the only sources of edification in the body. More will be said on this in the historical section.

The priest hood of all believers.,  was once again denied by the legal and  monarchal forms  political structures instead of spirit led.


In contrast to the N.T. focus on mutual ministry, the Puritans focused on the "pastor." Owen confidently asserted that "on this office ["pastor"] and the discharge of it He hath laid the whole weight of the order, rule, and edification of His church" (True Nature. p.55). Remember, he is not saying on the plurality of eldership rests the rule of the church.

It is upon the one man who occupies the separate office of "pastor." Since our practice generally corresponds with this notion, we must reflect upon this question: where in the N.T. can we demonstrate that the edification of the church has been committed to the ministry of one part of the body, especially it, light of 1Cor.12:14,19,31 and Heb.10:24-25?

The alternative form to the  legal structure  to be truthful not using the monarchal distortion of the text  into the fellow ship of the body  as merely an assembly by not using the to form , which  restricts the spirit often converts the faith in the Greek lecture hall  loaded with  philosophy , the true assembly was not so molded after the  world's forms due to our deepened lack of historical knowledge and discernment  the faith operative as a business  removed from the love of our master,  and origins of these twists and spins matured into a function of man's creation over the once spirit led body. 

JZ: Of course, there will always be a few that are “way-out,” but for the most part the confession of Christ by non-institutional ekklesias would be in line with the general statements of faith found in most evangelical para-church organizations. The   power of words take hold should without question? even if the word never existed in the actual scriptures is amazing  fact  and function  of mere assumption.


FS The body is selection of Christ ministry and life  through his blood , it is not an industrial  corporation tailored after the anglo-saxon  monarchal hierarchal world structures , but product of the love of our servant God. 
Which our lives should mimic by way of a conscious relationship with him john 17  of his presence in all the members not  the corporation which is sell out  for profit and business and  lot of compromise in the end which produced much of the powerless estate we are now seeing .  

 JZ: Absolutely not. The major church councils were carried out in settings where church and state were joined together. Emperor Constantine called for the council of Nicea. There was a lot of politics, threats, bribes and duplicity occurring in these councils. A good read in this regard is Philip Jenkins, Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years (Harper One, 2010, 328pp.). Which sadly merged  with many of the renamed mystery forms, in the Rosicrucian  forms  organizations,  utilizing the hypnotic effect of philosophy    despite the reluctance to admit it,  anyone with a historical education can see through it all  fairly well..as to all the external influences for power and wealth  sadly left their first love.

 A fellow compromised of faith and hope and love and acted on in so doing , to live by faith instead of whatever blows in  or over  ones head , but a state of true love and desire for truth and real connection  for all those in the body as one unit .Romans one , 1 Corinthians 1-4  kj3 Young's literal  ...  worship in truth and spirit.