​Members of the household of God

By our Guest Blogger

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.   
Ephesians 2:19-22

It’s only recently that I’ve begun to realise just how integral the Church is to God’s plan of salvation. 

I understood that when I was saved I became a child of God and a member of His family but I didn’t fully grasp the implications.  God’s family is more than a theoretical concept, and I am not an only child.  

Christ died to purchase a people, a bride, a Church, a body (1 Peter 2:9-10; Ephesians 5:25-27; 1 Corinthians 12:27).  To think that I can remain functionally isolated from the rest of His body is to deny an essential aspect of the gospel.

Membership of a household clearly implies the kind of close, everyday relationships that families who live together participate in.  Being built together and being fitted together are more than vague notions.  These words don’t describe scattered or isolated individual believers, or a one-time event. They require ongoing close proximity and regular contact.

Belonging to, and being actively involved with, one specific local fellowship of believers is inseparable from individual salvation.  It’s an absolute essential, not an optional extra.  I was saved to be part of the body.  If I’m not, I deny God’s Word and weaken the body of Christ.