The ecclesial community is not man’s idea. It is not a Christadelphian idea. It is God’s idea. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles…” (1 Cor. 12:13).
Baptism is more than the individual being baptized into fellowship with the Father and the Son; it is inclusion into a community of believers established by God; we are all baptized into one body.
Alternatives
God’s design is a deliberate choice. There are alternatives to the concept of one community of believers.
- The individual believer could continue in his former associations. He would not come to meeting but would spend his time with family, neighbors and the religious group to which he originally belonged. Even today, some think this would be a more effective way of spreading the Truth.
But this is not God’s design. - Believers could be divided into different meetings following their favorite teachers. The ecclesiain Corinth was in danger of being rent apart on just such a basis (1 Cot, 1;12-13), The Jews were used to such a system in their loyalty to various rabbis.
Within Christadelphia, some would prefer to have ecclesias separated along lines of expositional emphasis; all favoring pioneer writings in one meeting, all leaning to a young-earth view in another, etc.
But the followers of Christ are not to organize themselves in such a way. - Disciples of Christ could be divided into meetings along ethnic, social and economic lines. In New Testament times, this would have meant separate ecclesias for Jews, Gentiles, slaves and slave-owners.
Such a structure would have made life much easier for most brethren and sisters. Jewish and Gentile believers frequently irritated one another with their different dietary practices and attitudes to Jewish holidays. Slaves and slave-owners moved in wholly different circles in daily life. Why put them together in ecclesias where all are equal? As in any place at any time, some of the new converts would not get along with one another. Why force them to live together in the same ecclesia? Ecclesial life would have been easier if God’s design were different. But it is not.
Today, when there is more than one ecclesia within reach, some pick and choose which ecclesia they will join, driving past one to attend another. If they do so for the fulfilment of spiritual needs, that can be good. If they do so to nullify God’s design, it is bad.
Believers are to put aside personal differences and are to be bound in fellowship by their baptism into the one body. From a human point of view, this will cause problems. But it is God’s design.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One