In a recent article entitled ”The True Function of a Christian Church,” John Heuss said concerning the First century church, ”It was a fellowship that placed very little value on any organization or activity which did not contribute directly to three important things. What organization it boasted was for worship, for teaching, and for the collection of alms for the needy brethren. Being a member of the fellowship did not mean committee work. It meant a changed relationship to God. It meant a new quality of life among believing Christians. It meant a joyous expectancy that the future could not be bad.”

The writer laments the fact that the churches of today are missing the whole point. As Christ’s brethren and sisters, we too, need to be sure that we are not missing the whole point. Just how has our faith transformed our lives and just how do our lives reflect our faith? Our faith is not just something to be believed, it is a life to be lived, and everything we say or do should reflect this. It is not possible for a true member of God’s family to hide his light under a bushel. If we become on fire for the Lord, then this contagious enthusiasm will also infect our fellow brethren and sisters and even our friends and neighbors. Our life must become a living epistle known and read of all men.

This kind of faith will infect our whole ecclesia and transform our light stands into beacons showing the way to our Lord, if each of us individually lights our candle. Perhaps we have seen demonstrated the amount of light that comes when each person lights one match in a large open air arena. Individually our lights may be feeble indeed but combined with other soldiers for Christ, they become a blazing torch.
This may sound fine, but how do we do it? How do we each light and keep lit our candle? The scriptures abound in examples of light and the need for oil as fuel. ”The foolish took no oil,... the wise took oil.” Without the oil our lights will go out. To have a strong ecclesia we must have strong members, and to have strong members we must be men and women of the Word. If we will but read and study as the faithful of old, we will be so full of the truth that we could not if we wanted to, hide our light. Surely this was the case with Jeremiah for he says, ”Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. Even when Jeremiah wanted to be quiet, he couldn’t for he said, ”Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay.”

The real answer to all our problems is found in our personal study habits. If we will only follow the example of David who said he meditated in God’s law day and night, of Ezra of whom it was recorded that he ”prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it,” of those in Berea who ”received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily,” then we need not worry about apathy within the ecclesia. We need not concern ourselves with poor attendance at lectures, we need not fret at all, because if we, each one individually, become filled with the word of God, we will all be busy presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God. We will all be transformed by the renewing of our minds and we will be able to prove to all around us what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.