“Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.” (1 Cor. 12:27, NKJV)
We are currently examining the second myth that commonly persists in the thoughts of the ekklesia, and thus also points to the perversity of the contemporary church – The myth of the clergy as God’s special ambassadors.
In the previous teaching we pointed out that all believers that are born again are referred to as “priests” in the New Covenant, and not only a special select group. All priests minister to God and to people, and thus every born-again individual has the “ministry of reconciliation”, as 2 Cor. 5:18-20 beautifully spells out the priestly mandate: “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”
The shift from the old to the new covenant did not only change what was considered as the defined outlines of the church space, but also who may function as priests. It was no longer a Moses-ministry where one person as part of a dedicated and initiated grouping lead others in their spiritual walk – all who form part of the Body now has a function. In the following lengthy passage Paul attempts to explain this new dispensation of equality (and yet, diversity) of the ecclesia though a wonderful image, that of the manifold teachings that function within one Body. In 1 Cor. 12:12-27 Paul argues for the equality that lies in “living in harmony and being of the same mind and one in purpose” (Phil. 2:2 Ampl). Read the following portion of Scripture mindful of this notion of the equality of the priesthood in the whole of the ecclesia, taking into account different functions: “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’. No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
Within this new model of the Body there is no longer any distinction made between the clergy and the laity, the reverends/pastors/priests/bishops/etc and the general church members. Just as no distinction can be made between the church as so-called sacred space and the normal world outside, there is similarly no distinction that can be made (within the parameters of the Body of Christ) between normal members of the ekklesia and the “special ambassadors” of the church. Bruxy Cavey, in his The End of Religion, argues: “Because of Jesus, they understood that all of life is holy and every relationship sacred. Truly, there is no holier ground than the space between you and me as we connect in honest, vulnerable, forgiving relationship.” (p 139).
Because Jesus is now the Head of this new Body (Col 1:18; 2:19), no clergy position can overrule it.
There are various reasons why believers follow the system of spiritual leadership in the church, and not a single one of them is Biblical.
- The “normal” members of the church often misunderstand and thus disregard the true Body-model of the New Testament ecclesia, mostly because they have been conditioned by the traditional system of church functioning.
- The church system, for the sake of its own solipsist functioning, maintenance, and protection, had to make a distinction between a special, separated group of ministers and their general flock, and this is strictly kept in place by absolute control stemming from the liturgy. Control thus becomes the invisible guideline that informs this man-made leadership structure.
- We honour and pay the spiritual elite of our churches because we are thus able to function as passive listeners of a gospel that does not require much of us. We thus choose to, for instance, ignore Matt. 11:12.
- Apart from the social function the church fulfils in the lives of many people, it is a community marker of good citizenship and humanity. The clergy thus become a regulating factor of a good society, and are thus often classified as part of a high-functioning level of society. This grants false legitimacy.
- The clergy’s status in the community, that is for instance strengthened by years of study in an obscure field of speciality, theology, renders them important and thus exclusive personalities that appear to be wise in all spheres of life.
- The functioning in the “holy space” of the church building, how the reverend or pastor for instance dresses (mantles, togas, white ties, etc), speaking with a certain pulpit-style voice, all signal an otherworldly exclusivity. (More about this in a next teaching.)
Tom Hovestol, in his brilliant book Extreme Righteousness, draws a terrifying parallel between the practices of the Pharisees and the practices of the contemporary church. We will not discuss it in detail, but subsist with what Jesus had stated outright in Mark 7:9 (NJB): “And he said to them, ‘How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserve your own tradition!’” The Amplified translates it as follows: “You have a fine way of rejecting [thus thwarting and nullifying and doing away with] the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition (your own human regulations)!”
The crass way Jesus handled the religious leaders of his day made it undeniably clear that He wanted to eradicate this perpetuating, man-made myth of the clergy as God’s special ambassadors at all costs.
- Selah: Test your ecclesia to this teaching.
- Read: 10-15
- Memorise: 14:14 & 18 – the proverb and its interpretation
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read Hovestol’s book, and be afraid.
