House of God

I felt uneasy when I saw the fundraising video of a so-called "mega-church" posted on youtube. I was uneasy with the opening words in the video: "We want to build God a house, and it's not just for our members, it's for the King of kings and the Lord of lords .....". The concluding words in the video? "And the house that is to be built for the Lord, it must be exceedingly magnificient, famous and glorious to all countries ....."

My uneasiness stems from my comparison with the words ingrained in me from Scripture - the words of the Lord Jesus Himself and the words of the Apostle Paul in his address to the Athenians.

The gospel of John records Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in Sychar. During their conversation, Jesus told the woman that God is spirit and his worshippers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

"19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." " (John 4:19-24)

The Apostle Paul's words to the Athenians almost 2,000 years ago (around the time of his 2nd missionary journey in AD 50-52) are still relevant today - God does not live in temples built by hands and he is not served by human hands.

"24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the LORD of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' 29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill." (Acts 17:24-29)

Indeed, we the believers in God are His temple and God's Spirit lives in us (1 Cor 3:16). We are "like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2: 5)

But isn't there a need for a "house" - a "physical" place - for believers to gather together, to worship the Lord, to have communion with one another?

In the OT days, the temple built by King Solomon was a magnificient building containing gold, silver, bronze and cedar, taking over 7 years to build but was later destroyed by the Babylonians. The expense for Solomon's temple came largely from the spoils that King David took from his wars and from tributes paid by the vanquished peoples. And yes, even in NT days during the medieval times, cathedrals were grandiose structures. It is said that "the more splendid the architecture, the more the church believed it was praising God" (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_church_architecture.htm). The vast building funds are also said to come primarily from the poorer classes.

Today, should believers in Christ seek to have church buildings that are magnificient, that seek to be famous and glorious? While many may argue that they willingly contribute to such church buildings, I would think the humility of Christ provides a key principle in what a church building should be. When we take the attitude of Jesus who humbled himself and made himself nothing (Phil 2:5-8), God is glorified in how we live our Christian lives - in love and humility - and not how we build our church buildings.

In Ban-On (northern Thailand) where my church carried out short-term missionary trips, the local church building is a simple wooden structure, with cement floor, ceiling and standing fans and wooden benches. When I was in Wuhan earlier this year, the local Christians had their worship service and meetings in a rented space at the top floor of a building. The Wuhan "Root and Fruit Church" (上下堂) has only basic amenities but the local Christians' fervour permeated the whole place despite its humbleness.

God does not need us to build a house for Him. Where 2 or 3 are gathered in Jesus' name, there God will be.