1 Timothy 3:15 But if I tarry long, that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God… Sacred tropology, by which I understand the various figures and similitudes whereby persons, characters, and events are brought under our notice, and made familiar to our minds, in the Bible, opens to the student of Holy Scripture, a field of thought and inquiry at once most beautiful and instructive. God the Father, for instance, is represented as a King, a Governor, a Householder, a Parent, a Master. God the Son is brought before us as the Word, a Shepherd, a Kinsman, a Redeemer, Rock, Light, Vine, Door, Bridegroom, Prince of Peace; God the Holy Ghost, as Fire, Water, Comforter, Witness, Spirit of Adoption, Fountain. Faithful Christians are called saints, disciples, children, servants, friends, priests, and kings unto God. Ministers are designated by suitable titles — watchmen, shepherds, ambassadors, stewards. I. THE HOUSE itself, called pre-eminently "the house of God." There is fitness, design, beauty, and force in comparing the Church of the living God, wherewith we have membership, and to which we owe allegiance, unto His house. 1. Its Builder is God Himself. A system at once so simple and stupendous, as that exhibited in the origin and end of the Church, could no more have been the result of human device, than the creation of the universe, with all the harmonies of its movements, and all the beauty of its parts. Unfathomable love designed, unsearchable wisdom contrived, and Power Almighty executed that device of goodness to a lost and ruined world embodied in the gospel. When the command of the Most High came to Moses in the wilderness, whither he had lead the chosen host, saying, "Make Me a tabernacle that I may dwell among them," every portion of that mysterious tent, even to the very meanest, was to be made according to a pattern shown him by God Himself. And wherefore? Because it was to be a type of His Church, in which, as to its spiritual form, character, use, appointments, end, nothing was to be of human device. 2. Its chief corner-stone is Christ Jesus. The voice of prophecy attests this glorious element of the Church's stability. 3. The apostles and prophets are the foundations on which the Church is built. II. THE INHABITANTS OF THE HOUSE. 1. He hath given Jesus Christ to be the Head over all things to His body the Church, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. He, then, is the High Priest over the house of God. He is the Master of that great family, both in heaven and earth, which is called by His name. 2. The indwellers of this house of God are all they who enter the Church by baptism, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. III. THE BLESSINGS OF GOD'S HOUSE, THE CHURCH. 1. The Church affords shelter and sanctuary to its faithful indwellers. "The sparrow," saith the inspired Psalmist, "hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young; even Thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God." Without the Church's pale, the sinner is houseless, naked, miserable. 2. The Church, God's house, is a state of discipline and government. Order is heaven's first law, and without it the whole frame and fabric of Society would fall into cureless ruin. 3. But food is also necessary to the family of heaven, and the Church of God affords it. 4. The great Head of the spiritual family administers His house by stewards. 5. One of the chief blessings in the Church, considered as the house of God, here or in heaven, is gracious intercourse and communion. IV. THE END FOR WHICH THAT HOUSE WAS FOUNDED, AND THAT FAMILY ORGANIZED. (R. P. Buddicom , M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. |
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