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Jeremiah's Message for Churches Today

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah wrote, "An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land.  The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way.  But what will you do in the end?" (Jeremiah 5:30-31, The International Standard Version).

The Easy-to-Read Version puts it this way, "A terrible and shocking thing has happened in the land of Judah.  The prophets tell lies. The priests will not do what they were chosen to do, and my people love it this way! But what will you people do when your punishment comes?"

There are three parts to the prophet's lament above.

  • Firstly, the false teaching or lying of the prophets.
  • Secondly, the unscriptural position taken by the priests, as they assumed authority God never intended them to have, and,
  • Thirdly, the willingness of the people (the congregation) to go along with the new order or arrangement.

Under the Law of Moses, the High Priest and the Levites exercised leadership in the religious lives of the people.  The prophets from time to time were sent by God to bring messages to the people, challenging them often to return to the faithful keeping of His Law.

At no time did the High Priest or the assisting priests have the authority or power to change the way God intended His people to worship Him.  Their responsibility was to officiate and to lead in accordance with the regulations that God had given Moses in the beginning.  Yet in Jeremiah's day, the people had been lulled into a false worship in which the prophets distorted the truth, the priests made up their own rules for how to go about their roles in the assembly, and the people thought nothing of the rebellion, actually liking the new way of doing things.

What a sad indictment upon the children of Israel, but how are many modern churches different today?

The New Testament clearly sets out a pattern for the worship and behaviour of God's church, yet many modern churches are organised in a totally different way with the acceptance of the people or congregation.

Jeremiah asked the question, "But what will you do in the end?"  God clearly was not happy with the rebellion of his people.

We could ask the same question today. When Jesus said he would build His church (Matthew 16:18), did He imagine a situation in which men would change the design and functioning of His church and do something entirely different?

The answer is a sad "Yes".  Even the apostle Paul, writing to the church in Galatia, acknowledged that there already had been a departure by some from the pattern that God had intended.  He called it "perverting the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:6-12).

So when we consider the churches of today, we need to remember that the church God intended could be quite different.  We need to return to the pattern, the model, found in the pages of the New Testament itself.

Just as Jeremiah saw a people lulled into a false worship by men who had lost sight of the pattern given to Moses, we too can look around and find churches that have lost sight of the gospel of Jesus Christ and have little understanding of the church that he purposed in Matthew 16.

In a nutshell, Christ's church was intended to be led by scripturally-qualified elders, "bishops" (1 Timothy 3:1-2, Titus 1:7), "pastors" (Ephesians 4:11), or "presbyters" (1 Timothy 4:14), exercising spiritual oversight over the flock or congregation as shepherds (Acts 20:28), yet we find so many modern churches being led by "Committees" or "Boards" made up of people who fail to meet the qualifications given in God's Word.

Just as Jeremiah found priests "ruling by their own authority", we find "church leadership teams" making up their own rules for how the church is governed today and church congregations seemingly content with following as sheep behind these false shepherds.

Our plea is for churches to return to the authority of the Scriptures and to recognise that because Christ is the Architect, Builder and Head of His church, to be pleasing to Him we need to follow His pattern for the church in every detail today.

© Bevan Collingwood 2015

 


Bevan Collingwood, is an experienced teacher and community leader concerned with social justice issues and committed to following the simple pattern of the New Testament church.