The church is two things at once. It’s a spiritual organism and a physical organisation. Paul says “as the body is one, and hath many members… so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). That’s the organism, alive and breathing. Then he says “the whole building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21). That’s the organisation, built and ordered. The next verse joins them: “In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). God doesn’t split what He joined.
What a bad member really is
A bad member isn’t a believer who’s still struggling. We’re all growing. A bad member is one who refuses to support the system God placed him in.
Nehemiah 3 shows the wall going up, family by family. Then verse 5 says the nobles of Tekoa “put not their necks to the work of their Lord.” They weren’t enemies. They were present and counted, but they carried nothing. Sanballat only mocked the wall. The weight of the delay sat on those who stood by.
Every joint matters
“From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth… maketh increase of the body” (Ephesians 4:16). The body grows by what every joint supplies. Paul presses the point: “The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee” (1 Corinthians 12:21). Neither can the hand say it’s connected but will work when it feels like it.
The system is not the enemy
Some hear “system” and think control. God calls it order. “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40), “for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). The early church had a system too: “they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).
Supporting it looks like this:
- Be present. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25).
- Give faithfully. “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him” (1 Corinthians 16:2).
- Serve. “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another” (1 Peter 4:10).
- Honour leadership. “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves” (Hebrews 13:17).
The choice is yours this week
“Consider your ways” (Haggai 1:5). Bad is a position, not a permanent label, and you can leave it today. Join a department, be faithful in your giving, show up to every service, or talk to your leader about where you can help. Nehemiah’s wall rose because “the people had a mind to work” (Nehemiah 4:6). Let’s have a mind to work, BCI.