The Way, the Truth & the Life

Marriage & Family Life

The relationship between a husband and his wife is the most important human relationship that we  can achieve in our lives. It is in marriage that we can learn how fully to love another person, how  to forgive one another, how to be considerate and caring, how to be selfless. The Bible tells us a great  deal about the principles of marriage and what it should mean for disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ

Godliness and Self Control in our Lives

Godliness is a very practical attribute, a simple definition of it is ‘honouring God in our  everyday lives’. It is something we have to practise, to train at everyday. Just as an athlete will become  unfit and unable to win a race if he does not train daily, so disciples of Jesus will become spiritually  unfit if they do not practise godliness daily. We need to consider how we can do this practically in our  lives.

The Power of the Tongue

The Judgement Seat  when Jesus Christ returns to set up God’s Kingdom, everyone who knows and understands the  Gospel message will be called to meet him and will be judged by him. Those who have been  faithful to him in their lives will be given a place in the Kingdom, those who have been unfaithful will  be rejected by the Lord and will be sent away to die.  The basis of the Judgement will be how we have put the Gospel into practice in our lives  (Romans 2:16) and Jesus will be particularly interested in how we have used our tongue.  “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they  speak,  for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."   Matthew 12:36-37  Jesus will not listen to what other people say about us; amongst other things he will judge us on  what we have said about other people, on how we have used our tongue. If our words are ‘careless’; if  they are thoughtless or hurtful then we shall have to answer for them to Jesus.

Ecclesial Organisation

The Ecclesia of God  hen men and women are baptized into Christ they belong to God as part of His family. God has  commanded that His children should be organised into a community of believers and He tells us  clearly how this should happen – there should be one body or world wide community of disciples.  “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body,  though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or  free…” 1Corinthians 12:12-13 In our English Bible, this organisation is called the church or assembly or congregation.  However, in the Greek language, which was used to write the New Testament, a special word was  used, the word ‘ecclesia’. An ecclesia is a group of people who are brought together for a special  purpose and there is a use of the word in the New Testament which illustrates this. Acts 19 tells us of  the time Paul spent in Ephesus and of the problems he had with some of the people of the city.  “For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought  no little business to the craftsmen.  These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, "Men, you  know that from this business we have our wealth…  Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and  most of them did not know why they had come together.” Acts 19:24-25&32 It is a great honour to belong to the ecclesia of God and when baptized members meet to  worship they should always remember this fact. God has called them to these things and they should  not neglect them.

The Breaking of Bread

n Lesson 2 we saw that baptism marks the end of our old life and the beginning of a new life in  Christ. We become members of God’s family, His sons and daughters, and so become brothers and  sisters together in Christ. We become the disciples (the word means a student or pupil) of Jesus and  commit our lives to following his words and his example.  “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing;  but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known  to you.” John 15:13-15  This is very important; our relationship with Jesus depends on doing what he commands us to  do. One of the most important things he has commanded us to do is to meet regularly with our brothers  and sisters to share bread and wine together in remembrance of him.  “The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,  and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me."  In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant  in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."   1Corinthians 11:24-26  The worship together of true Christians is very simple and, apart from baptism, this is the only  ritual act the Lord Jesus Christ has asked us to do – we must take it very seriously indeed.  We know that, after the ascension of Jesus, the disciples met daily in the homes of disciples to  share bread and wine in remembrance of him (Acts 2:46-47). Later the ecclesias met weekly, on  Sunday, the first day of the week, to do this.  “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul  talked with them.” Acts 20:7  Under the Law of Moses the Jews met together on Saturday, the last day of the week, for a day  of rest – the Sabbath. The disciples of Jesus decided to meet on the first day of the week as this was  the day on which Jesus rose from the dead. This decision to meet weekly in this way probably looked  to the Scriptural example of the weekly meal of the Shewbread by the priests in Old Testament times  (Leviticus 24:5-9). When Jesus said ‘do this in remembrance of me’, he used quite a rare word which  is also used in the Greek version of the Old Testament in Leviticus 24:7 where it is translated  ‘memorial’ in our English version. Just as this meal was holy and precious to the priests in Old  Testament times – only they were allowed to eat it, so the Breaking of Bread meal is holy and precious  for the true disciples who share it together today. They do not share it with other ‘Christians’, only  with those who truly are their brothers and sisters in Christ.  Throughout the whole world, Christadelphians meet every Sunday to share bread and wine  together in this way. They usually do this in a hall or rented room but sometimes in the home of a  believer. The place is not important. The service is always very simple and is very similar wherever in  the world it is held. It is the most important part of our fellowship together and Christadelphians know  that wherever they are, they can go to an ecclesia to share bread and wine with those who worship  there.  Jesus gave us a number of instructions about this service and we shall consider them  individually.