What the Local Church Provides for the Believer, Part 1: Instruction

Here is the next installment of my series on the importance of the local church. This post signals a shift from theological to practical, from laying the biblical foundation of the importance of the church to why it is important for the individual believer to be a part of it.



There are three things that are necessities for the believer according to the Scriptures: instruction, fellowship, and accountability, and these are prescribed in the context of the local church. The first of these is instruction. Christianity is not anti-intellectual, instruction holds an important place in the life of a believer. The primary way that believers are instructed is through the faithful preaching of the Word of God. Preaching is an essential mark of a true church. When we see the first believers meeting after the events of Pentecost in Acts 2, we find that “they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching” (v. 42). And when Paul is giving Timothy some final instructions before he dies, he emphasizes one thing: “preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2). Preaching is the number one mark of a healthy local church, according to Mark Dever, and specifically expositional preaching, that is, “preaching whose object is to expound what is said in a particular passage of Scripture, carefully explaining its meaning and applying it to the congregation” (Nine Marks 11). Embedded in this definition is the idea that the Scriptures are where believers primarily receive their instruction. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The Bible is inspired, literally “breathed out,” by God, and as such it contains the very words of the Creator of the universe, telling us about Himself and what He has done, and instructing us in the way we are to live. We are not merely saved by the preaching of the gospel from the Word of God, we base our entire lives as believers on the Word of God, and we gain what we need to do this from hearing the Word of God preached and applying what we learn to our lives. Preaching is under attack in our society. It is considered arrogant for one man to stand behind a pulpit and declare what he believes to be true from the Bible, and thereby exclude all other viewpoints. Leaders in the post-modern Emergent Church movement, who question the existence of absolute truth and doubt whether the Bible can really tell us anything definite about who God is using human language, encourage “conversation” rather than preaching. But the sufficiency of preaching is bound up with the idea that God can and does communicate truth through human language. What is the aim of instruction for the Christian? Is it just so that we can know more for the sake of knowledge? Decidedly not! Though believers are justified, declared righteous by God on the basis of the righteousness of Christ, God still commands believers to pursue holiness. 1 Peter 1:15 tells believers that “as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.” However, many evangelical teachers today attempt to emphasize this point, while putting down the necessity of proper theology. The motto that these leaders consistently put forth is “deeds, not creeds.” This is an absurd notion, and one foreign to the Bible, especially the writings of Paul. Michael Horton writes: "Paul would have considered it inconceivable that a church might have its doctrine right but be uninterested in missions, evangelism, prayer, and works of service and charity to those in need-or, conversely, that a church might be faithful in life apart from sound doctrine." Orthodoxy and orthopraxy were inseparable and mutually dependent elements of Paul's message.