Rocky Cape Christian Community

Cities

Jerusalem, Illyricum, Syracuse, and Pergamum. . . . in the first century after Christ, nearly everyone lived in cities. Roman soldiers stood guarded their walls and closed their gates at night. Mule trains clattered through their dusky streets that wound like cobbled tunnels beneath their arches, overhanging balconies, and the shuttered windows of their stone-walled homes.

Writing from first century cities it was not hard for Christians to use them as a picture of the church. The writer to the Hebrews wrote: “Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem . . . ” (Heb. 12:22). John the Revelator wrote about the holy city, the new Jerusalem, which came down from God out of heaven . . . the great city which is the bride, the Lamb’s wife (Rev. 21:1 and 9). But no one used the city/church comparison in a more creative way than Paul.

First century city dwellers were citizens of the cities to which they belonged: Athenians of Athens, Corinthians of Corinth, and Romans of Rome. Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints.” To the Philippians he wrote: “our ital citizenship is in heaven,” but on the heels of that he wrote of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19).

Households

First century city streets were narrow and steep. Strangers could not have guessed what lay behind the ornate doors that faced them. But Paul knew. He grew up in the city and knew that behind every ornate door bustled a household of activity—shady courtyards, pools, flowers, children playing in white columned porticos, olive trees, splashing fountains, and men in white flowing robes. He knew that every household had an air of its own. Every one belonged to a different family; often an extensive family, with grandparents and single people, babies, young people and parents all living under one roof.

It is this household that makes the New Testament picture of the City of God complete.

New Testament descriptions of the church as an undivided whole speak of the City of God.

New Testament descriptions of the church as a local brotherhood speak of households within that city.

Jesus, the head of the Church, made a distinction between the two. He spoke of one church (John 17:21). But he also spoke of churches (Revelation 1-3).

The apostles made this distinction. They spoke of a universal, invisible, and heavenly church: “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:26). But they also spoke of local, visible, earthly churches: the church in the house of Justus, the church in the house of Lydia, the church at Philippi, the church with Priscilla and Aquilla, the church with Nymphas, and in many other places on the earth.

In these local churches, in these households within the city of God, Christianity changes from holy beliefs to a holy way of life, from theory to practice, from heavenliness to earthliness, from divinity to humanity. Those who follow Christ naturally find their way into them.

What Happens in the Household

In the household in the city of God we belong to each other. We are all related—grandparents and single people, babies, young people and parents. Some of us are men and some women. Some of us are mature and some immature. Some of us lead out and some sit and listen. But when one suffers we all suffer. When one is honored we all rejoice. There are many gifts among us, many talents, and many varied occupations, but we all share a common goal. We all take turns and we all benefit from the discipline, the hard work, the counselling, the fellowship, the restrictions, the planning, the assistance, and the total surrender of self that our living together demands.

“By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, bond or free, and the body is not one member but many . . . ” (I Cor. 12:1314). And in baptism we make more than just a covenant with God. We make a covenant with our brothers and sisters in the church.

At baptism we become citizens of the city of God and find our place in the household of God. With that comes responsibility. We learn

—in honour to prefer one another (Rom. 12:10).

—to be likeminded one toward another (Rom. 15:5).

—to love one another with a pure heart (I Peter 1:22).

—to refrain from judging one another (Rom. 14:13).

—to edify one another (I Thess. 5:11).

—to receive one another (Rom. 15:7).

—to admonish one another (Rom. 15.14).

—to greet one another with a holy kiss (II Cor. 13:12).

—not to be puffed up one against another (I Cor. 4:6).

—not to go to law one with another (I Cor. 6:7).

—not to bite and devour one another (Gal. 5:15).

—not to provoke one another (Gal. 5:26).

—to be kind one to another (Eph. 4:32).

—to be tenderhearted and forgiving one to another (Eph. 4:32).

—to submit ourselves one to another (Eph. 5:21).

—to forbear one another (Col. 3:13).

—to comfort one another (I Thess. 4:8).

—to exhort one another daily (Heb. 3:13).

—to consider one another (Heb. 10:24).

—not to speak evil one of another (James 4:11).

—not to grudge (grumble) one against another (James 5:9).

—to confess our faults one to another (James 5:16).

—to pray one for another (James 5:16).

—to have compassion one of another (I Peter 4:9).

—to use hospitality one to another (I Peter 4:9).

—to be subject one to another (I Peter 5:5).

—to minister one to another (I Peter 4:10).

—to have fellowship one with another (I John 1:7).

How blessed the fellowship in our household—when we all speak the same thing, when no divisions exist among us, and we are perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement (I Cor. 1:10)! How good and how pleasant it is to dwell together in unity . . . doing all things without murmurings and disputings . . . all working by the same rule and minding the same thing (Psalm 133:1; Phil. 2:14,15; and 3:16)!

The Highlight of the Household

The highlight of our household fellowship is the Lord’s supper, where we all drink from the cup of blessing and break bread together. In this way we remember the Lord’s death until he comes again.

We must examine ourselves before partaking of the Lord’s supper because we know that if we eat or drink unworthily (that is, with sin in our hearts) we eat and drink damnation to ourselves (I Cor. 11:29). Even beyond this, we feel responsible for everyone else who eats and drinks with us. We all do what we can to make sure that everyone else is also without sin: “For we being many are one bread. We are all partakers of that one bread . . . ” and we cannot “drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils”, nor “be partakers of the Lord’s table and the table of devils” (I Cor. 10:17 and 21).

No sinner, whose sin is known, may retain his position in our household, lest he be a “spot in our feasts of charity” (Jude 12). We must purge sin out from among us because we know that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (I Cor. 5:6).

Household Discipline

If any “man that is called a brother ” (a member of our household) falls into sin, we must admonish him. If he does not repent and listen when one of us talks to him, nor when two of us go, nor to all of us when we come together, we must put him out of our household and regard him as a heathen man and a publican (Matt 18:17). We must take note of that man and keep no company with him so that he may be ashamed (II Thess. 3:14).

It is our job to publicly rebuke those that fall into sin if they do not repent when we admonish them (Titus 3:10). We must put such men away from among us as wicked persons (I Cor. 5:13). We must mark those that cause divisions and offenses, contrary to sound doctrine, and avoid them (Rom. 16:17). When we gather together in the name of the Lord Jesus we must deliver him unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (I Cor. 5:45). With such a person we shall no longer eat (I Cor. 5:11).

Expulsion from our household involves far more than just “excommunication”. It is not just the cutting off of symbolic privileges (like greeting with a kiss, and partaking of the Lord’s supper). It is not just the eliminating of someone’s name from the “membership roll.” Expulsion from our household is what happens with a family whose son or daughter becomes a drunkard or a whore. Finally the family must say: “There is the door. Until you shape up, you cannot live with us. We do not have drunkards and whores in our house. Get out . . . until you can prove that you want to change, then we will gladly receive you back into the family.”

Expulsion from our household involves the severing of social ties. When Paul said “with such an one, no not to eat” he meant sitting down and eating beans, or rice, or potatoes—not the Lord’s supper. (Otherwise he would have implied with I Cor. 5:9, 10 that we should eat the Lord’s supper with fornicators, the covetous, the extortioners, and the idolaters of this world.) Expulsion, including the ban and shunning, is our last resort to bring our erring brothers and sisters back to safety among us. And we know that if we fail to keep our households in order, God will expel us en masse from his holy city (Rev. 21:27). On the other hands, if we expel anyone from our household who should not have been expelled, we also earn for ourselves the condemnation of God.

Household Rules

As individuals we all have an idea of what is right or wrong,  normal or abnormal, acceptable or unacceptable. We all “draw our line” somewhere. But in the household in the City of God our lines must come together as “group positions” (1 Cor. 1:10). We need draw up definite rules for all of us to live by. Unless we do, we rapidly disintegrate.

We cannot function as households by tolerating among us the  ideas, the customs, and the ethics of widely varying cultures. Neither can we function if we leave too much room for “grey areas”—things that are “neither here nor there.” With the mind of Christ we no longer need to grope through the fog of conflicting opinions. We walk in the light. We have definite opinions about everything. Everything is definitely acceptable or definitely not.

But God forbid that we should “draw our lines” without his direction, or draw them for households other than our own.

Our responsibilities end at the door going out to the street.

Rules and Order

Having rules is neither scary nor unreasonable. It cannot be avoided. Every tribe, every gang, every colony, every troop, every human society has its rules. Just like natural households agree upon and follow a pattern of who is in charge, when to eat, what to work, where to go, and what to allow, we must also agree upon and follow a pattern. But our pattern may be quite unlike the pattern followed by other households in the city of God.

Once again it is like in the natural household. At our house we eat three times a day, we often speak English, and do our visiting in the living room. At our uncle Johann Reddecopp’s house they eat four times a day, they speak German, and do their visiting in the back bedroom. At our friend Manuel Gutierrez’s house they eat two times a day, speak Spanish, and do their visiting in the kitchen. We all have an established order. We know how to do things and when. We know what to expect of each other, and all three of our households function smoothly.

The order of our spiritual households will be just as diverse. A household in Panama, for instance, may require the brothers to keep their shirts on. In Greenland thay would not be necessary. A household in Germany may require the sisters to wear modest tailored dresses. A household in Chad, where women wear flowing robes, would find this unsuitable.

Paul expected different local churches to observe different extra-biblical rules. When he stayed in Jerusalem he observed Jewish law. The Christians at Jerusalem apparently observed the law and practiced circumcision. Paul never condemned that. But he withstood to the face those Christians who went out from Jerusalem to teach their extra-biblical commandments to others. Paul called them false brothers (Galatians 2:4) and saw their error as a direct course back into bondage (Galatians 4:9 and 5:1).

Keeping the Rules

Household rules deserve to be kept, not because they are Biblical (most of them are not) but because they help to preserve godly order. Order is both Biblical and inescapable. Either we keep our Christian rules or we begin to live by the rules of the world. But no Christian household, be it ever so filled with the Spirit of God, may exalt its extra-Biblical rules to the level of Bible truth.

Converts need to obey the rules of the household they decide to join. We need to limit our local membership to those who feel comfortable with and support our rules (2 Cor. 1:10). But within the City of God, every Christian must be free to leave one household and join another if he feels more comfortable that way (Romans 14). We dare not condemn, de-Christianize, or excommunicate a redeemed Christian because he chooses to leave (or not become a part of) our particular household.

The rules we decide on (about dress, economics, insurances, the use of technology, the Lord’s day, etc.) will always be the commandments of men (Matthew 15:9). But it is a grave mistake to think that we can manage without them.

Changing or Discarding Household Rules

No matter how good they are, our rules dare not become unchangeable. The principles they rest on never change, of course, but our applications to principle need adjustment and repair from time to time. Some things that seemed permissible in the past may prove themselves unpermissable, and vice versa. Some traditions fade away as new ones take their place. But if we follow Christ we may survive the changing of our rules and prosper.

Some rules, after they have proven themselves a hindrance, must simply be discarded. And we may need to discard rules simply for having too many.

Having rules, we must remember, is no proof of godliness. Many ungodly societies have rules and keep them more rigidly than we. Fascism, communism, the mafia, organized Satanism, the Masons, and animist religions are only a few examples. In a more positive way I am impressed with how the military, the Red Cross, and the Roman Catholic orders keep their rules. I am impressed, but convinced that the keeping of rules will not save them.

Unless our rules and order are built on Christ, they are bad rules and will not stand.

The Jews of Jesus’ day kept bad rules. They had added an almost innumerable array of laws onto the original laws of God. Then wehn Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath they concluded, “This man is sinner, because he does not keep the Sabbath day” (John 9:16). ita Man judged God a sinner because God did not keep man’s laws!

Our household rules dare not conflict with the rules of the City of God. They must be approved by Jesus our King and they must be founded upon the city’s rules as written in its constitution: the Book of God.

Household Judgment

We may not judge. Judgment belongs to the King of the City of God: “For it is written, as I live saith the Lord, everyknee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefroe judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. . . . Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God,” (Romans 14: 11-13 and 22).

It is wrong for us to judge the motives and actions of others. We do not need to judge because God and the Bible do it. The Spirit of God passes judgement in the spiritual man’s mind (1 Cor. 2:15-16), so he must warn others about God’s judgment upon them. If he fails to do this he becomes guilty of judging by default (1 Cor. 4:3-5). Let me illustrate:

Scene One

Matilda was a woman who “loved the Lord.” Her first husband left her. She was converted at a street meeting in Gary, Indiana. Then she became part of the Christian household at 35 S. Gulledge Avenue. in East Chicago. Matilda wore jewelry and blue jeans. She cut her hair and curled them. She kept on living with her second man—but the people at S. Gulledge Avenue took her in as a member of their household just like she was.

The Lord had judged some of Matilda’s actions as sin. Matilda knew what the Bible said, but the Christians at S. Gulledge Avenue led her to believe that she did not need to change her ways. They gave her a place within their household in defiance of the Lord’s judgment, and they judged Matilda righteous when she was not. All those people at S. Gulledge Avenue became guilty of pronouncing upon Matilda the judgement of men. Not only was she ruined (she got back to drinking again and now lives with her fourth man) but that whole houshold in East Chicago earned for itself the judgment of the King of the City of God.

Scene Two

Harvey was a black boy who grew up in Fort Myers, Florida. His mom (he had no dad) was a chamber maid in a Cape Coral hotel. Harvey got into drugs and found his way into the Philadelphia PA federal prison. There he gave his heart to the Lord.

Upon his release, Harvey went to see the man who had brought the Gospel to him in prison. He found him: Kenneth Longenecker, a member or a church in the beautiful Philadelphia suburb of Quakertown Heights.

Harvey was poor. He owned two work shirts and a pair of white slacks. He had a scar on his cheek from getting messed up in a fight.

Quakertown Heights looked very strange to Harvey—compared to “below the tracks” at Fort Myers! Harvey had never set foot on such deep rugs. He had never seen such sumptuous meals. He had never floated down the street in a black limousine with electronic windows before.

For a while Harvey was happy in this “dream world.” His old clothes were whisked away by the Longeneckers and he came to possess a new wardrobe of pressed, long-sleeved shirts, and a brown tweed suit. He got a gold-edged Bible in a black leather case with a zipper. He got a job. (As he had never worked in construction before, he gave his employer nd crew many reasons to smile.) Harvey witnessed a solemn baptismal service in the Quakertown Church. He saw how everyone got a little piece of bread and a sip of grape juice. But he stood as a stranger in the midst of a forest of dressed-up, perfumed, wealthy, and respectable northern whites.

Harvey tried hard. He tried to align his speech and musical tastes with those of the people at Quakertown. Even though many things seemed unexplainable, Harvey tried to respect and obey their traditions. With all his heart he craved the warmth and support of the family of God. But no one at Quakertown could relate to Harvey. He was too different and his past too sinful. Even now he made so many unusual mistakes. Some people began to wonder whether he was altogether “bright.”

Harvey knew he was not accepted. He felt keenly the fact that he had not one true friend in whom to confide. He cried to the Lord, but it still hurt him when the Longeneckers exchanged glances when he mentioned “mild” incidents of his life history in passing. What if he was too bad for God? Harvey could not live with this awful fear.

Did the Longeneckers know that there had been drugs in prison? They seemed so blissfully good and blissfully unaware of what went on in the lives of people like him. Harvey never risked sharing his problem with them. Nobody noticed his struggles and Harvey spent his evenings alone in the unfamiliar quiet of his room.

Finally he could bear it no longer. He still felt held out at arm’s length. The Longeneckers still seemed unnaturally zealous aobut keeping their teen-age daughters out of his way. And the ministers still seemed reluctant about discussing his desire for baptism. Then Harvey began to think: Where is life? Where is America? Has the world really turned upside down and come out like this?

That Sunday evening Harvey got revoltingly tired of rich, sweet, food—of meticulously pressed clothing, and of all the cool, pious, faces that surrounded him. Flinging his church clothes into a corner behind his bedroom door he stormed out of the Longenecker mansion and hitch-hiked back to Fort Myers. Two years later he was shot to death in a bar.

The Quakertown congregation was duly touched by Harvey’s departure. Some cried. His name came up in their prayer meetings for a while, and the church newsletter reported: “Harvey Webster has left our community. The cross was apparently too heavy for him.”

Safe in the Household

Households that really live within the City of God do not judge wrong like the people of S. Gulledge Avenue or Quakertown Heights. They receive, retain, or expel only those whom the King of the City also receives, retains, or expels. Because of this it is a safe place. It is not governed by capricious human beings but by Jesus who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood!

Whether working or resting or singing or visiting with friends, the household in the City of God is the place to be. It is the place where the Word of Christ dwells richly in all wisdom, where Christians teach and admonish one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in their hearts to the Lord. It is the only place to bring up children of the Lord. In the jungles of Paraguay, in the New Mexico desert, in the mountains of China, in the heart of Mexico City, of Los Angeles, London, Melbourne, Singapore, Moscow, or Benin City in Nigeria, God’s households are places of refuge where “Matilda” finds sound direction so that she loves the Lord more and where “Harvey” finds real brothers and sisters to weep or rejoice with him.

All wandering children of God find a welcome among the households in his city. All live for one another.

No wonder the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!”

Peter Hoover
1988