All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95)

This month of October ends with the anniversary of the publication of Martin Luther’s “Ninety-Five Theses” — the first formal protest against some of the major abuses of the so-called Church of Christ in the 1500s. It should remind us that the body of Christ stands just as in need of reformation as it did 500 years ago. In fact, we could go back to the Reformed churches of the 16th century and say that they too needed much reformation. And someone has recognized this, since during that time the motto of semper reformanda was coined as a Protestant principle, meaning “always reforming”. Yet it’s not enough to recognize that we need to be constantly reforming according to the Scriptures. We must honestly examine its teachings, and compare our beliefs and practices to it. And I contend that if this is done with most of the popular forms of American Christianity, we fall woefully short of what we see the faithful Christians of the 1st century practicing. When I say this, don’t imagine that I’m saying we must follow all the practices of the early Christians. An example of such a contextual behavior that was done by seemingly all the first Christians, but doesn’t need to today, is the wearing of head coverings by women (but that is a matter of conscience for individuals).

However, there are several essential characteristics and guidelines of the assemblies that were founded and taught by the apostles, which we ought to follow today. And at least a few of them aren’t seen among most American churches. In the past, I have examined these things in great detail (see The New Testament Revival of Western Christianity). But in this devotional, I just want to point out to you that earth-shattering reformation of Christ’s body is very simple, but is so very hard, and has hardly ever been done. This is because in order to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament, we have to recognize that much of our long-standing and cherished customs hinder us from following them. And these instructions were the rule that the first assembly in Jerusalem, and all the apostolic assemblies afterward, followed.

This is particularly difficult for those who follow any of the confessional and Reformed Protestant traditions (although all groups have their deep-seated tradition). Some of them believe that the doctrines and practices taught by the major Reformed groups are the closest to those taught by the Scriptures of the apostles. But I would challenge them to look again at the New Testament record of the early church, and the apostolic letters written to them, and carefully evaluate whether Reformed doctrine and practice reflect this model.

If we are to have a modern-day reformation of the American and western body of Christ, then we’ll be forced to do painful self-examination. Rather than just assuming that the normal way we live our lives is consistent with the pattern that Jesus and the apostles laid down for us in Scripture, we must honestly come to terms with the demands of biblical Christianity, and ask ourselves the question of whether our lives look anything like those of the New Testament Christians. And I think that if you take some thorough time and effort at this reflection, you’ll find that the general attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that are displayed by most Bible-believing Americans mostly fail to reflect the New Testament model.

Reformation Requires a Ravenous Hunger for the Truth of Apostolic Scripture

In our Lord’s letters to the seven representative assemblies in Asia Minor through John’s Revelation, He gives this exhortation to a fellowship that appeared to be spiritually living, but was really dead:

“’Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent . . .” (Rev. 3:2-3a)

This is the basic need of most American believers today. We need to wake up, to strengthen what we have obeyed from Scripture, and remember the teaching we’ve received, so we can keep it, and repent. The situation here is of a body that had drifted from God’s Word, and started living in the ways of the world. They had received the gospel and its direct teachings, but they had been lured away from its moral implications by the enticements of the world. And this is what has largely happened to Christ’s body in America. It isn’t enough that we claim to be, or look like, Bible believers, Protestants, Reformed, or evangelicals. The question is – are we completing the deeds commanded by Jesus in the Scriptures, and keeping His teachings? Are we truly living out the teachings implied by and based on the gospel of our Lord? In many major ways, we aren’t, so we need to remember them through Scripture, and repent!

In my view, the first essential virtue that needs to be instilled in us to see reformation in our day is an earnest desire to understand and live out the holy Scriptures, from an obvious passion to please the Lord. The apostle Peter urges his readers in his first epistle to “long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pe. 2:2). So most of our greatest need is to see our need for God’s Word, since we’ve come to recognize that we don’t really understand the essential teachings and implications of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s why we must start with solemn self-reflection. The apostle Paul urges this upon the rebellious and deceived Corinthians when he tells them,

“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” – 2 Cor. 13:5a

We may know we are in the faith, but the question remains of whether we are consistently practicing the faith of the apostles and their assemblies. And I contend that we American Christians are some of the most inconsistent in the world. But the reasons why go far beyond any intellectual ignorance.

The truth is that underlying much of our ignorance and refusal to put God’s Word into practice, is a subtle pride in our own contemporary American, or even “evangelical,” way of doing things. Most of us have found communities in which we feel comfortable, and we quickly conclude that the general way in which we live our Christian lives, and live out our Christian community, is basically in keeping with the teachings of Scripture. But we are far more easily deceived than we realize, and we have way more unbiblical presuppositions than we see.

Most of the reason for these misperceptions of our spiritual condition and understanding is that we’ve failed to take adequate responsibility for our personal spiritual growth and learning. Most of us have an obstinate refusal to truly think about what we believe and do, and whether it’s actually in alignment with the Scriptures. Unfortunately, this has a lot to do with a generations-long conformity to our worldly American mindset. American society has gradually grown increasingly unthinking, easily distracted, and consumeristic. And these patterns of thinking have corrupted most American Christians. For too long, our media- and information-obsessed culture with countless self-proclaimed experts has made us rely on the various sources of information and entertainment for our intellectual and moral development (think of radio, TV, the Internet, and smartphones). Too many Christians in our culture assume that all they need to understand and know about following the Lord will be given to them in bite-size blurbs, or tantalizing and exciting presentations that will give them the right feeling to go along with some semi-biblical piece of advice. We have willingly given ourselves to a system of instruction that promises immediate happy feelings, without any deep, long, and hard thinking about what God has revealed about Himself and us in His Scriptures.

And although the poor leaders of our evangelical culture have much to do with the proliferation of shallow, sentimental, emotionalistic, and mystical Christian thought, I place the blame on all believers who should know better, especially the experienced and older ones. We have the most access to God’s Word than believers ever had in history, and yet we are some of the most ignorant of what that Word tells us to believe and do.

Hence, I challenge you to test your relationship to your Bible or your Bible app (and I strongly recommend that you earnestly try to use a physical Bible). How devoted are you to learning the sacred record of what God has done and said in the most important events of history? How much time and effort do you take to seeking the implications and application of Scripture for your condition, your circumstances, and your cares? Do you really believe in the Protestant principle of sola Scriptura, or “Scripture alone” as the final and ultimate authority on every matter in life? If this is the truth, and Scripture itself in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says so, then it’s essential that we seek to find out what the Scriptures teach on every aspect of our lives, so far as we’re able.

And contrary to the way that our American consumeristic mindset would tell us, it’s up to you primarily to learn God’s Word, however you’re able. And not just your favorite, feel-good passages, but to learn it holistically and practically. If you want to know all of what God has done through and in Jesus; if you want to know what the first Christians believed and did; if you want to know the essential truths about the world around you; if you want to know how to make the best decisions; if you want to know who you are in Christ, and what God has called you to do in your specific life station; then you must make it a daily habit to search, savor, and soak up the holy Scriptures.

Now, if you’re reading this encouragement, then it’s likely that you already have a daily habit of Bible reading. But do you truly understand and integrate Scripture’s principles and lessons as part of your way of thinking? Do you take adequate time to find out why the Holy Spirit recorded what He did through the words of Scripture, and what those messages mean for you personally? This is what the Bible calls “meditation,” or careful, deliberate, and prayerful reflection on the truths and instructions in Scripture. And this is a difficult habit that we must practice if we want to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus through the renewal of our minds (Rom. 12:2). This discipline will be one of the chief beginnings of reformation, if we want to see our Christian fellowships and communities reformed into the pattern of biblical Christianity.

The Body of Christ Needs to Be Reformed Into the Biblical Condition

Thus far I’ve only hinted at the main ways in which we fall short of the New Testament teachings and examples of Christian living and growth. If you’re very astute and observant, you’ll agree with me that we are far too easily distracted by interests, pursuits, topics, and voices that do nothing to help us fulfill our individual duties as servants of God and others. You’ll probably also concede that this goes hand in hand with our lack of biblical study, reflection, and application. But what are some of the other main indicators that we aren’t living out much of the apostolic teaching for the Christian life?

I will only be brief in my description of what I see as the miserable and deplorable condition of most of American Christianity. I already used the words “consumeristic” and “emotionalistic,” and I’d like to enlarge on them here. American Christians mostly see Christianity like a business institution, which provides them with services and goods for their happiness, in exchange for their submission and/or material support. Of course, this is a complete corruption of biblical Christianity. Christianity is hardly like any worldly organization, institution, or business. Christianity could be said to be the character and glory of Jesus lived out in the lives of His worshipers. Christianity isn’t about what you get, but about what you are and do. If you’re a child of God, then you’re a member of God’s huge family of believers, who are united together in fellowship for the accomplishment of His goal to teach every kind of person to obey and worship His Son. Hence, Christianity can’t be purely displayed through any form of selfish business or entertainment.

What I’ve just described is the popular model of “seeker-sensitive” and/or “mega-church” churches. They plague American Christianity like so many bands of fools, and seek mainly to get as many people as possible into their “services,” through the use of rock concerts, motivational speeches, entertaining presentations, and recreational activities. Such organizations aren’t churches in the biblical sense of the word, but mockeries of Christ’s body. And the very thing some of them are attempting to do – the converting of sinners through the gospel – they completely fail to do, since they don’t ever preach the gospel!

Which leads me to my next evidence of the need for biblical reformation in America – our grievous failure to regularly explain the gospel to unbelievers. You’ve probably already been here, or are currently. Do you actually explain or share the gospel to the unbelievers around you on a regular basis? Many American Christians excuse their silencing of the gospel with the reasoning that their behavior itself presents people with the gospel. Doubtless, your life must be consistent with the gospel, but no person was ever saved simply by seeing someone acting like Jesus, without learning about Jesus and His salvation. Every believer, in some way or other is an “ambassador for Christ,” and as such, is to announce His command to trust in Him on His behalf (2 Cor. 5:20-21). If we were really living out the instructions and example of the apostles, then we would be sharing the gospel a lot more, and seeing more people become believers in Jesus. This is one of my chief complaints about the American body.

Third, we also are woefully defective in fleshing out our relationships with our brethren in Christ. As I already said, the “church,” or Assembly, is a family, and a family in a deeper sense than any biological one. One of the chief characteristics of the early Christians was their love for each other, since they truly practiced their spiritually familial relationships with each other. They spent time together, prayed together, ate together, gave for each other’s needs, stayed in each other’s homes, and even kissed each other every time they met! Do our relationships with each other even come close to the closeness, affection, and single-mindedness that the first believers demonstrated? I think not!

Fourth, the activity and service of the American body falls far short of the biblical model. Most of this has to do with the unbiblical notion that there should be a single, full-time, and supremely-dedicated man calling most of the shots for his church, and acting as the sole or primary teacher. This is the unbiblical office of “the Pastor.” Such an idea is nowhere found in Scripture. Instead, we see that most congregations, if not all, had multiple qualified, experienced, self-giving, and well-known men who worked together as the “elders” of their assembly. They weren’t professionals, clergymen, orators, or business executives, but simply the most qualified and mature men of their fellowships that were able to teach God’s Word effectively and faithfully. The modern-day model of assigning most of the “church” tasks and major decisions to a single man promotes the neglect of most congregants’ gifts, abilities, and aspirations.

The biblical alternative to the church model that excludes most believers from having any significant role in the activities of the assembly is to allow all members to wisely and appropriately use their giftedness. This will look like the model that Paul spells out in 1 Corinthians 14, where the outcome of their gatherings is that “each one has a psalm, a hymn, a revelation, a teaching, a tongue, an interpretation”. In other words, as he puts in Romans 12, whatever gift one has to use for the encouragement and help of other believers, he is to use it however he’s able. And this includes speaking gifts that are used outside of a formal, educational, teaching time.

Stemming from this area of reformation is the sphere of church leadership. I’ve already mentioned it, but since it’s so important, I want to end this list with an elaboration. The popular American evangelical church model defines the best type of shepherd, overseer, or “pastor,” as the formally educated, professionally trained, financially compensated, full-time, honorarily designated, and oratorically-devoted man. But again, the church leaders of the New Testament were rarely fully compensated, hardly formally educated, and scarcely gifted in giving speeches. They were simply humble, gifted, mature, tried, and recognized leaders of their congregations, who could show people how to imitate Christ in all areas of life, make wise decisions for their church communities, and boldly teach and instruct with the teachings of Scripture. They were un-professional, well-known by their fellowships, and not necessarily able to deliver precise, academic, and elegant speeches. They simply loved their families and churches, lived God’s Word out in a mature way, and loved to teach believers how to please God in everything. We need such men today. And not just designated elders and overseers, but godly men who serve in ways besides that important office!

I partly end with this area because biblical reformation will come about most effectively if the leading men recognize how our effeminate and feminizing culture has pulled them away from their God-given roles, and consistently take responsibility, be strong and courageous, and promote obedience and submission to God’s Word. Men of God, your brethren need you to take your leadership roles seriously, and lead like our Lord did!

Putting Sola Scriptura Into Practice

To conclude this devotional, I want to again urge you, brother or sister, to do a thorough self-examination of your life and Christian relationships, and evaluate them based on what you truly know from Scripture. How devoted are you really to living your whole life according to the teachings of our Lord and His apostles? And how devoted is your church or assembly to doing this? If you recognize that there are major areas of your life, or your brethren’s lives, which are inconsistent with the model of the New Testament, then repent, seek the Lord, and take the right action to seeking a solution to the failures.

But you can’t do this alone. Reformation was never accomplished by a single person, but by believers agreeing together that they have been disobeying the Lord, and working together to correct their failures and mistakes.

In my next devotional, I would like to continue discussing how reformation comes about through personal and corporate revival from God’s Spirit, the ever-present Reformer of the body of Christ. Please pray for me and for the revival of American and western Christianity.