ONE BODY IN CHRIST

Koinonia versus institutionalism

By Kokochi Kurosaki

When God’s people truly see that the centre of Christianity is having fellowship with
God, and that this fellowship is realized through Jesus Christ, then they will see the true
causes of the divisions in the churches, and will understand the way to get rid of them.
The primary cause of the divisions is the institutionalism and organizationalism of the
churches and missions, which instead of helping the life of the believers within them,
smothers or drives it out. This gradually produces mere dead institutions instead of the
living Ekklesia.

Christians who really have life in Christ cannot exist within such a corpse and will at last
have to come out of it. But, sad to say, in most cases, those who leave dead institutions
simply set out to build another “better” institution or embrace other rituals and
ceremonies, thus repeating the same error.
Instead of turning to Christ Himself as their centre, they again seek to find fellowship and
spiritual security on the very same basis that failed.

Even the Bible itself is interpreted and understood in various ways and often becomes the
cause of sectarianism. In the same way, dogmas and creeds cannot bring Christian unity,
because human minds are not so uniformly created that they can unite in a single dogma
or creed. Even our understanding of Christ Himself cannot be the basis of unity, because
He is too big to be understood fully by any one person or group. Our limited
understandings do not always coincide. One emphasizes this point about Christ, another
that, and this again becomes the cause of division.

Only as we take our fellowship with Christ as the centre of Christian faith, will all
Christians realize their oneness. There are different understandings of Christ. There are
varying opinions about the Bible and its teachings. There are various kinds of institutions
and ceremonies. But this need not hinder practicing the unity of the Body of Christ. Is not
our fellowship, however varied, with the same Lord? Is not the same Saviour our on
Head?
Our fellowship with God in Christ is, as we have seen, the very purpose of God in
creating man. In its fullness it is His “eternal purpose” – the Ultimate – and He cannot
rest until this is fulfilled, however great the cost may be to Him because of man’s sin.

I feel that all Christians are aware that this koinonia is very important, but obviously they
have not realized that it – not theology, doctrine, creed, institution, ceremony, etc – is the
centre of Christian faith. When all Christians see this, the change will be amazing. Our
practices, of course, will not be the same, because God’s commands differ according to
the different gifts and callings. But even though each one may differ in carrying out his
part of the will of God, since God’s object is one, all members of the Ekklesia will be
united in doing the will of the same God, fulfilling one great purpose. Each individual, by
doing his part, will contribute to the work of God in cooperation with others.
God is the great Conductor, and the individual members of the orchestra each play their
varying parts on different instruments; but if all follow the Conductor, the whole
composition will be a complete and beautiful symphony in perfect harmony.

The ecumenical movement, which has become very popular recently, seems to have
arisen from the belief that the division of Christians into many sects and denominations
has greatly weakened their power and made it almost impossible to fight against worldly
forces, especially Communism. This is true, as far as it goes, but we must remember that
the unity of Christians is not a matter of human effort or co operations. True unity must
come solely from God, and when there is true fellowship wit God, it will come naturally
of itself. The power of Christians does not come from human cooperation but from life-
union with God. It is the power of God working in men.

Therefore, the One Body cannot be created by human collaboration. It exists through
simply removing the barriers and having fellowship with God – a reality prevailing
among those who obey Him and love each other. No other, merely human method will
avail. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind….Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” This is the law and the prophets
– and also the Gospel.

--- To be continued ---

The next (and last) blog in this series, will discuss how (though imperfectly) we can tell if
someone is a Christian or not.