This article continues discussing Church Organization, by surveying the evidence in the New Testament.
A more organized basis
So clearly, after the initial start in Jerusalem and Judea, there has been a change. The Gentile churches that had sprung up, including the Corinthian church, were not selling up everything now; they were not bringing all their goods and possessions and giving them to the apostles. They had passed through the stage when the apostles had delegated organizational matters to the seven brethren in Acts 6, and now we have got an organized ecclesial life. So, necessity having arisen among the saints in Jerusalem, Paul urges the ecclesias in Achaia to “lay by them in store as God bath prospered them.” If they have been well blessed with this world’s goods, then he expects that they will give largely of God’s bounty to this collection.
But there is a difference here, and the contributions of the Christians are on a more organized basis. Now we have got ecclesias meeting together on the first day of the week, presumably for the Lord’s remembrance, and the collection being taken up. They are to lay it by so that later the apostle will take it to Jerusalem. By this time, too, it seems as though the financial administration of the ecclesias is in the hands of the “elders,” or the arranging brethren, who have become responsible for the disbursements of the ecclesial funds. So we read in Acts 11.29: “Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea: which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.”
So here in the church at Jerusalem, where originally the apostles had been the ones to whom everybody had brought their gifts of what they possessed, and where later the apostles arranged for the appointment of the seven who would do the distribution, it is the “elders” of the church, who appear to have charge of the distribution, and see that it is fairly distributed among the needy. There is also a rather curious verse, when we are thinking of the ecclesial disbursements for the relief of the needy. I think it must refer to some kind of ecclesial roll on which the widows who were unable to be maintained by their families were placed for ecclesial support.
“Honour widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God. Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth” (1 Tim 5.3).
And then it goes on to say (verse 9): “Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works” etc.
Now on the face of it, it seems as though widows were not to become members of the church until they were threescore years old, but it cannot mean that. Most of the modern commentators and translations, in fact, seem to agree on this, that it was some kind of ecclesial roll on which the names of those were placed who needed ecclesial support, when it became clear that their own relatives were no longer able to maintain them. But it does, of course, emphasize again a change in the administration of the affairs of the ecclesia, because the duty of relief now becomes a private responsibility where possible.
It is the duty of every brother and sister, the apostle says, to look after his own if he can. If he cannot, then the ecclesia will care for them. And that seems to be the way in which the later church became organized. And we see in this alone, I think, a development in ecclesial organization. The evolution, if you like, of a policy to fit the changing circumstances. As the church grew and the Gentile ecclesias grew up all over Europe, it became necessary that things should be put on a more orderly basis, and the somewhat looseness of Acts chapters 2 and 4 gives place to an organized relief which is clearly administered by the elders of the church, and the duties of individual members are made quite clear.
I make this point to emphasize another — do not think that every change must be for the worse: You know there are some brethren who as soon as anything is suggested should be done differently, perhaps to meet different circumstances, cry out, “It is not the way our forefathers or great-grandfathers did it, and it must be wrong if it is a change.” Some brethren would say, any kind of organization must be wrong, simply because it is organized. As long as it is disorganized, a rag tag and bobtail affair, it is all right, but if you are going to start organizing it, it is wrong! What we have to take cognizance of is the fact that as the church grew, even in New Testament times, and as the ecclesias developed, so the organization had to change, with it. It has to be adapted to meet the changing circumstances.
Rich and poor
Our mental image of the New Testament church is often a confused one. We tend to think that they were all poor and servile, and possibly as being mainly slaves. For Paul did say “Not many wise men after the ,flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty and the poor of this world to confound the rich,” (1 Cor 1:26). But the very fact that Paul says this, implies that there were some who were poor, — not many, but some. And there were, of course, in the New Testament church, those who were influential; and there were those who were rich; and there were those who were masters as well as those who were slaves.
We have quite a number of examples in the New Testament of men who were clearly wealthy and influential, having large houses and households, including slaves of their own, although it is still true that the majority would appear to have come from the lower end of society. As we have been told: “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).
Priests
Even among the priests, during the ministry of Jesus, there were those who believed in him, those that in their hearts, like Nicodemus, felt that this man was the son of God, the Messiah, but would not confess him openly. They were afraid, justifiably; and their influential friends perhaps held them back. They thought, “What would the Sanhedrin say if I declared myself a Jesus man?” But when the resurrection took place, when the preaching of the gospel went out to them, then they were ready to receive it.
Now I do not mean that priests in those days were necessarily wealthy, but they were certainly influential; they were certainly important people in the nation of Israel; and a great company of the priests, it says, were obedient to the faith. You remember in Paul’s letter to Timothy, he clearly has in mind men who were well off, as we would say, in this world’s goods. “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate” (1 Tim 6.17). Communicate here has the sense of sharing their good things, their blessings, with other less fortunate brethren.
So here we have again a picture of well-to-do men in the church who were being exhorted to share their riches with others. And, of course, the corollary of this, in Paul’s teaching, is that it does not just apply to the rich, or powerful, or influential; they have this responsibility, truly, but it was the obligation of all Christians, in Paul’s book, to be “rich in good works.” So he writes: “And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful” (Titus 3:14). Paul is saying that there were some, as always in the early church, who one might say were Paul’s men, and others who were against him. He had his enemies in every church; but what he is saying is, our own folk, those who say they are Paul’s men, if they really are on my side, must remember to maintain good works, for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. In a similar passage we have the same injunction from the Apostle: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One