Romans 12:1

Christian ability to serve God in any meaningful way is dependent on acquiring spiritual discernment to understand God’s ways in service.  Today there is a dearth of spiritual discernment among God’s people and this explains why so many seem oblivious to the spiritual departure that characterises assemblies in our time, Matt.16:3.  It is the widespread inability to discern between good and evil in spiritual things (spiritual blindness) that permits subtle changes to take place in assemblies so that a climate is produced in which the New Testament pattern for service in the house of God is superseded by a natural order with spiritual evil regarded as good and spiritual good as evil (Matt.12:24, Jer.4:22, Rom.16:19).  This state of affairs has arisen in part from failure to teach assembly truth or New Testament principles clearly, consistently and unequivocally to each new generation of believers.  As a result, those who make their presence felt at every level of assembly activity are sometimes men who have very little understanding of God’s way relative to His assembly.  In such circumstances divine principles count for little, including those regulating christian service.

The Origin of Service:

The Roman epistle contains Scripture’s definitive treatise on the doctrine of the gospel, a setting forth of the mind of God to the intent that believers may be firmly grounded for spiritual growth and service.  It has been said that without proper recognition of God’s purpose in the gospel it is virtually impossible to discern the nature of the faith as revealed in the epistles; thus the role of this letter in Scripture is emphasised by its position as the first letter to local churches.  How important it is then to understand that true service proceeds from a right appreciation of God’s purpose in the gospel.  If we are well-founded as to our gospel preaching we shall have little difficulty in tracing God’s ways relative to further truths that are built upon it.  Romans chapter 12 marks the beginning of a section dealing with practical aspects of fellowship and service.

The Sphere of Service:

In Rom.12:1, the apostle beseeches believers to present or yield themselves once-for-all (aorist tense) to God as a living sacrifice.  Some students of Scripture have thought that this exercise is far from being solely individual in its meaning and application.  They see in this verse, many bodies but only one sacrifice, that is, the idea of believers yielding up themselves in a corporate sense to God and this being an intelligent service in response to the compassion of God.  Whether we agree with this application or not, the truth of it is enshrined in other New Testament Scriptures (e.g. Phil.1:27, 2:27, 1 Thess.1:7 R.V.)  God’s purpose for the saints of this dispensation, in a corporate sense, is the assembly and the individual believer’s yielding up of himself in a sacrificial sense should be within that divinely appointed sphere; this calls for spiritual intelligence and discernment.  The aggregate of this individual exercise, becomes therefore a corporate spiritual sacrifice, fulfilling God’s intention that the local church should be His bondslave.  To make progress therefore in the things of God, it is important for us to recognise that service is scripturally centred in the assembly context and is therefore corporate in character.  The compassion or mercy of God is extended to men for the principal reason that He desires a people for Himself in the image of His Son.  That desire will find fulfilment in the church as the bride of Christ, but meantime it finds expression in the assembly, there being no other sphere of christian service envisaged in Scripture.  It should, of course, be a matter of common knowledge and understanding among us that the assembly is God’s appointed sphere of fellowship and service for all believers, the embodiment and manifestation of Christianity.  This constitutes, or should do, the reason for our being in it.

Misdirected Service:

As we have noticed, there are those in assemblies who have little or no appreciation of local church principles so that both assembly fellowship and service are regarded in a casual way; as a result these saints feel free to participate in non-assembly activities such as denomination and mission work.  (The distinction between denomination and mission is necessary in view of strenuous efforts being mounted on a widening scale to promote direct links between City Missions and assemblies).  Then there are those who know the truth bearing on these matters but who pursue their own course, apparently determined to ‘serve’ on their own terms.  Even more incongruous is the spectacle of ‘overseers’ and ‘leaders’ among the saints actually encouraging these unscriptural links or at best turning a blind eye to them.  The plain fact is that true elders do not guide the flock of God contrary to divine principles.  Departure on such a gross scale leaves little scope for the assembly to retain its distinctive character.  Believers in assembly fellowship should recognise God’s eternal purpose in the gospel and yield themselves in corporate unity to dedicated service in and through the sphere that God has devised for this purpose.

Meaningful Service:

If we sincerely desire to serve God then we will want to do so in His own way, that is, in and through the assembly.  This corporate dedication should be an act of unison – one hear, mind and purpose (Phil.1:27) – in which the saints demonstrate total commitment in service, intelligently recognising the divine purpose and corporate nature of their calling.  It represents a position of spiritual maturity on the part of an assembly, where unity of purpose based on the willing submission of saints to the divine pattern prevails.  The practical outcome of such submission tot he will of God will be a like-minded people (John 17:21) and this is what God had ever in view in the proclamation of the gospel.  Ideally, the assembly is a corporate, living sacrifice inseparably identified with Christ, who in the days of His flesh was a living sacrifice wholly committed to rendering service to God in accordance with His word.  This spiritual stance on the part of the local assembly is described as holy – separated to God – conveying the thought that saints in this condition before God are separated from all that is evil and thus acceptable to Him.

Service and the Gospel:

It is a sad fact that believers in our day appear to have little appreciation of either the nature or scope of the gospel.  The general view seems to be that the gospel is an entity in itself, an isolated presentation of the issues of salvation, the means whereby sinners are saved and added to the Church – the mystical body of Christ.  This unconnected view of the gospel is not only widespread in the evangelical circles of Christendom but also has its adherents in assemblies.  Such brethren take the view that the gospel may be preached without regard to the divine pattern for service.  The error of this will be apparent to all who recognise that the gospel is an integral part of the faith (Jude 3), that deposit of doctrinal truth that is inseparable in Scripture from the local assembly.  Clearly then, gospel testimony in New Testament terms is a function of the local church and not an activity independent of it.  Further, it is not an end in itself but always has in view baptism and assembly fellowship with all that this implies doctrinally (Acts 2:41-42).

Service and Fellowship:

It follows that the pattern God has laid down in His Word for gospel testimony precludes its preaching in circumstances that compromise divine principles.  In the light of this, is it not incongruous for us to have fellowship with gospel effort in the missions and systems of Christendom, all of which have no basis in Scripture?  Surely such activity is a contradiction of assembly fellowship and what the assembly represents.  Whilst it is recognised that many who engage in such ‘service’ may be unaware of the nature of their behaviour, the effect nonetheless is to disobey God’s revelation whilst professing His name.  Those who assume local stewardship, leaders of the flock of God, have responsibility to ensure that divine principles are not flouted in this way.  However, it has to be recognised that there are elders today who seem only too ready to associate themselves and the assembly with these unscriptural activities.  There is no such thing in God’s Word as serving in two camps; it’s either the assembly or Christendom, it cannot be both.  The same is true of freelance preaching, the idea that believers are free to please themselves how and where they ‘serve’; this is a product of the natural mind that finds no place in Holy Writ.  For those who claim fellowship in God’s assembly there can be no compromise with spiritual evil, no matter how dressed up it may be in order to appear either socially or spiritually good.  A return to godly order in the churches is long overdue.

The Challenge to Service:

So the aim of the gospel in this present age is to produce saints who recognise the corporate nature of divine purpose and intelligently yield themselves to service in and through the assembly.  In this way we are separated unto God from the spiritual evil of Christendom and the related institutions of men (2 Cor.6:17-18).  The clarion call of God’s word has ever been to separate ourselves from spiritually evil associations in order to serve Him in the appointed way.  It is surely the desire of every servant that his work finds acceptance and abides in the day of testing (1 Cor.3:13), but if this is to be achieved then reassessment of individual service may be called for in the light of the divine pattern (2 Tim.2:15).  It is clear then that nothing less than wholly dedicated commitment to God’s ways will meet the divine requirement for service and that is only possible if we contribute to a corporate, holy sacrifice in the divinely ordained sphere of service, the assembly.