Wednesday, June 1

"Every truly Christian household is a church"

I am indebted to Alan Knox for pointing out the following April 5, 1874 excerpt from a message entitled, Building the Church: Additions to the Church. At the end of the quote is the name of the well known pastor who preached these words.

I want you to notice this, that they were breaking bread from house to house, and ate their food with gladness and singleness of heart. They did not think that religion was meant only for Sundays, and for what men now-a-days call the House of God. Their own houses were houses of God, and their own meals were so mixed and mingled with the Lord's Supper that to this day the most cautious student of the Bible cannot tell when they stopped eating their common meals, and when they began eating the Supper of the Lord. They elevated their meals into diets for worship: they so consecrated everything with prayer and praise that all around them was holiness to the Lord. I wish our houses were, in this way, dedicated to the Lord, so that we worshipped God all day long, and made our homes temples for the living God...

Does God need a house? He who made the heavens and the earth, does he dwell in temples made with hands? What crass ignorance this is! No house beneath the sky is more holy than the place where a Christian lives, and eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and praises the Lord in all that he does, and there is no worship more heavenly than that which is presented by holy families, devoted to the fear of the Lord.

To sacrifice home worship to public worship is a most evil course of action. Morning and evening devotion in a little home is infinitely more pleasing in the sight of God than all the cathedral pomp which delights the carnal eye and ear. Every truly Christian household is a church, and as such it is competent for the discharge of any function of divine worship, whatever it may be. Are we not all priests? Why do we need to call in others to make devotion a performance? Let every man be a priest in his own house. Are you not all kings if you love the Lord? Then make your houses palaces of joy and temples of holiness. One reason why the early church had such a blessing was because her members had such homes. When we are like them we will have “added to the church those who were being saved.”
--C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

4 comments:

Pastor Steve said...

Great thoughts that got completely lost in the generations that followed. Maybe we are ready to pay attention now?

J. Guy Muse said...

Steve,

I am encouraged to see more and more people moving back to the directions described by Spurgeon in this brief excerpt. To read the entire sermon is most fascinating.

Marc La Porte said...

I agree with Spurgeon. However, not every group of people meeting in a house can be considered a church. And one should consider the inherent elements present with a household which are mandatory for when a non-household group of people want to consider themselves a church.

J. Guy Muse said...

Hi Marc,

Thanks for your comment. Could you elaborate a bit more what you mean when you write, And one should consider the inherent elements present with a household which are mandatory for when a non-household group of people want to consider themselves a church. I am not sure I understand your point. Thanks!