Too often, Christianity is portrayed as some intellectual “belief system” to which we must give our assent.  Sometimes it is viewed as a collection of experiences and emotional highs which may be appropriated by the true believer.  I have even read of churches that have eliminated all congregational singing and participation because the folks who attend prefer to simply watch the entertainment; they look for a Christianity where they can be anonymous observers.

All of these varieties of Christianity would have been incomprehensible to the believers in the New Testament church.  For them, to be a Christian meant adoption into a familial relationship with Jesus Christ.  It meant to be a child of God, a brother or sister of Jesus.  There was strong belief and powerful emotion, but these were mere consequences of the consuming change of being.  These early Christians were aware that they once were “without hope and without God in the world” but now had become “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”, “shining like stars in the universe”.  They had gone from death to life; from darkness to light in the Lord; from slaves of sin to ambassadors of Christ.

These new creatures did everything differently.  They threw off the shackles of ancient hatreds and prejudice and superstition.  They praised God and preached Christ openly in the face of torture and death.  They loved one another deeply from the heart.  They sought to excel in service.  Each considered the others as more important than himself.  In other words, they were imitators of Jesus.

Our goal ought always to be a simple New Testament church, but may that never be merely a statement of polity and pattern.  Let us be a New Testament church because we are people like those of New Testament times:  made new in the image of Christ.