1 Timothy 3:15 (NKJV): the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth
Is this generally how you speak of the church?
As I was preparing to continue my lectio continua trek through Paul’s first epistle to Timothy this week for our midweek vespers service, I was struck by this beautiful, lovely, and powerful text before us here today. This text gives me hope. This text comes off to me as good news. And… this text confirms to me what I already knew to be obvious. That the CHURCH, is the pillar of truth. It is the ground of truth. It is the treasure trove, the deposit, the safe haven of truth. The place that truth is found.
Yet for others, this is not only not something that they believe, but it’s something that strikes them as offensive, hurtful, and even disgusting. And I don’t merely say that because of people who find the church to be hypocritical or because everybody has been hurt by church-based trauma. I say that also of people who have low views of the church for any and every reason they might possibly have, and that includes not only ALSO theological reasons, but primarily theological reasons.
“HOW COULD THE CHRHCH BE THIS,” they ask. How could that abusive, corrupt, devil-led, place of idolatry, and hypocrisy, and abuse be the pillar and ground of truth. That’s what they’re really thinking. They might not think it is, but oh, it is.
See for many people, even for people IN the church, “the church” is a bad word.
The church is assumed to be wrong in everything, even by those who are supposedly part of the church.
And if you don’t quite believe how big of a problem this is in modern “Christianity” let me simply show you via bullet points as to how much this affects us
Simply put because these things are not in scripture the church is almost de-facto, A Priori assumed to be wrong. And that’s not even getting into the gross amount of distrust that the church is treated with in regard to how to read and use and “interpret” (which is a horrible word but you know what I mean) those scriptures. And so big of a problem is this, that now the entire historic consensus of the church, is met with a rival, of not a consensus, but a growing contender for it, and one which by now means whatsoever resembles the ancient consensus of the church.
And a lot of this is indeed theological. And it relates in large part to Sola Scriptura and low-church protestant sensibilities. “If the church is the pillar and ground of truth then you’re saying that the Scriptures are not!” “If you say that the Church is the pillar and ground of truth, then you make the Scriptures irrelevant.” But this is an utterly false dichotomy, isn’t it? For who gave you the Scriptures? And I don’t mean, who formed the canon or who penned them, though I could go there if I wanted to, but I very literally mean, who gave YOU the scriptures? Where did you first hear them? When did you first see them? What was the circumstance? It was the church. Maybe you were born into the church, maybe you met someone who was a part of the church, or maybe one day you just wandered into a church, but nobody, without first meeting the church has met Christ or His Word. The Scriptures belong to the church, just in the same way that the Scriptures give birth and continually sustain the life of that church. The Scriptures are used by the Church. They are a tool of the church. But without the church, they are not read, or preached, or spread, or taught, or believed. And so without the Church, (brace yourselves), without the church the Scriptures are useless. Because without the church, which is created by the reading, preaching, and teaching of those scriptures, they will not BE read, taught, preached, or believed.
This is exactly what Paul teaches us in Romans 10, when speaking of faith and how it comes. For the Scripture states indeed, that; “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” How do we know this? We know this from Scripture Alone, don’t we?! (Reallly? read on) But “how then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent.” Does that sound like Scripture alone? Sure. But does it sound like Scripture ALONE? no. For we know what we know and confess what we confess upon the authority of Scripture alone (of course), but scripture is absolutely never alone (the same goes for the faith and works debate). It literally can’t be. Its not a naturally occurring object or substance, but one that needs to be MADE by human beings. it needs to be penned, then it needs to be copied, and produced, with the use of other unnatural man-made products, like ink and parchment, etc. And not only that, but the Scirptures themselves, even after they’ve been made do nothing. They dont read themselves, or preach themselves, or teach themselves. For as Paul says, the thing being true is not enough, it needs to be believed, and in on order for it to be believed it needs to be heard and in order for it to be heard it needs to be preached… and to do that you need PEOPLE. People, called by God, and already enlightened by His gifts of Word and Spirit in whom the Spirit dwells who believe this Word and know it well enough to go and to preach it, and proclaim it, and teach it to those who need it. And that people is the church. It’s not rocket science, guys. It’s literally common sense. Its literally necessary mechanics. Is our view of the church so dismally low that we’re willing to abandon plain common sense in order to push her down deeper into the mud of irrelevance? But this isn’t the only tex that speaks of this. We also have;
This leaves us with Point #1 – the church is the pillar and ground of truth in that it delivers that only source of truth to us (the Scriptures), which by no means operates without or apart from the church.
And yet, the question still remains, even if we’re to accept that it is this pillar and ground of truth in that it gives us the thing that alone is true, then what of the church itself. Surely, apart form the Scriptures, the church cannot be trusted, right? Well, that’s the question. Are we to believe the church or not? Are we to view the church with skepticism? What is the church to us? Because I know what it was to Paul, it was the pillar and ground of truth. And the phrase “pillar and ground of truth” seem to me to go a little bit beyond a bare delivery system. SO waht is it then? Well, let’s look at what Jesus has to say. He says this of the Holy Spirit, which, again, by His indwelling in us is part and parcel to the definition of waht the church fundamentally is. He says; when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come (John 16:13). When He, the one who is truth , dwells within you in such a way that He leads you into all truth, and in fact, teach you this truth. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.( John 14:26) and not only that, but He will make you SPEAK this truth (Matt 10:20, Luke 12:12, Acts 4:8, etc). And as such, when the church speaks, it speaks not as stupid, obviously wrong, irrelevant men, but as the collective BODY OF CHRIST, (a body which has a mouth), which is FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, which testifies to the truths about Christ, in that it speaks the Word of Christ. And as such we are to believe this Word preached to us by the church, not as the Word of men, but as the Word of God (1 Thess 2:13). There is literally no other pattern, and no other teaching in the Word of God that the low-church protestants continually pit against the church that Word has created, which it belongs to, and which it is used by. Again – the Word is never heard without the church, and the church is never heard apart from the Word she speaks. Firstly, as we said, mechanically, but now, as we must admit (SOLELY authority of the Holy Scriptures) by virtue of the Spirit that wrote the Scriptures, the Spirit which works through the Scriptures, the Spirit which speaks through the Church, and the Spirit which she is full of. To do anything less is ecclesiastical Marcionism.
This leaves us with Point #2 – the church is the pillar and ground of truth in that she is filled with the same Spirit OF TRUTH that inspired the Holy Scriptures, who leads her into all truth, who teaches her all truth, and who speaks through her in all truth, for where the Spirit is not, there the church is not. And where the church is, there is the Spirit.
Ad this is what we confess. Although we so often forget that we confess it, don’t we? BUt come on, let’s try to remember; say the 3rd article of the creed with me. “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church…” Oh but if that wasn’t clear enough yet that THE CHURCH is an article of faith, let me show you that entire rest of the 3rd article depends upon it. For you have just confessed THE CHURCH, now also confess the communion of saints. What is this? Is it had apart from the church? How about the forgiveness of sins? NO? Didn’t think so. Oh but don’t worry, becuase when this is expanded in our Catechisms it only gets clearer.
the Holy Spirit effects our being made holy through the following: the community of saints or Christian church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. That is, he first leads us into his holy community, placing us in the church’s lap, where he preaches to us and brings us to Christ.
[38] Neither you nor I could ever know anything about Christ, or believe in him and receive him as Lord, unless these were offered to us and bestowed on our hearts through the preaching of the gospel by the Holy Spirit. The work is finished and completed; Christ has acquired and won the treasure for us by his sufferings, death, and resurrection, etc. But if the work remained hidden so that no one knew of it, it would have been all in vain, all lost. In order that this treasure might not remain buried but be put to use and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to be published and proclaimed, in which he has given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply to us this treasure, this redemption. [39] Therefore being made holy is nothing else than bringing us to the Lord Christ to receive this blessing, to which we could not have come by ourselves
Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 435–436.
And Luther goes on in that article, by no means stopping or slowing down – but I hope that by now I’ve shown you the truths of this matter and proven the point without belaboring it too much. The church and the Scriptures, and the Spirit come to us as one. Indeed, the Holy Spirit fills the church, through whom the Spirit works on us by Word and Sacrament as preached, proclaimed, and administered by the church, which thus, in turn, gives birth to, and sustains the life of the church. The Church therefore cannot be anything other than the pillar and ground of truth. At least not without us denying that the Scriptures are true, or that the Holy Spirit is true. And so just in the same way that to say “the Scriptures are the only source of the authority” is by no means used by protestants to deny that the HOLY SPIRIT who is behind those Scriptures and inspired those Scriptures is not only also a source of authority, but a greater and more fundamental source of authority, so also in the same way, to say that the church is the pillar and ground of truth by no means denies that the Scirptures are alone the source of truth, or that the holy Spirit is alone the source of truth, but rather, these claims are all tied together. The Scriptures are true and authoritative becuase the Holy Spirit who inspired them is true and authoritative. As such, the church is the pillar and ground of truth becuase she wields the Word of truth, is full of the Spirit of truth, and speaks words of truth. This declaration by no means militates against the principal of Scripture alone, but rather comes from the Scriptures alone.
The meaning of 1 Tim 3:15b is not to bulldoze sola Scriptura, but to insist upon Scirptures interconnectedness with the Church. It is to say that neither exists without the other. For this very Scripture was written by a member of the church. It was accepted as Scripture by the church, it was used by the church, it was brought to you by the church, preached to you by the church, and explained to you by the church. It is inseparable from the church and the church is inseparable from it. This is what it means, whether with Sola Scriptura or without Sola Scriptura, – the church wherein the Scriptures are found, where Christ is found, where life and resurrection and wholeness,goodness, and grace is found, just so happens to also be where TRUTH is found. For the church is defined by the presence of Christ in Word and Sacrament, believed in faith, and preached in purity. How then could it be anything other than the pillar and ground of truth?
Is it any surprise to you fellow Lutherans that in almost every article of every document in our Book of Concord that the voice of the church speaks together with the Scriptures? Have you ever wondered why that is? It’s because she speaks the truth. That is her nature.
And so next time something (anything) comes up. Whether that is
Instead of assuming that the church is wrong by default, assume actually that it’s right, at least as it speaks in consensus across time, space, and geography. For the church might indeed be made of fallible men, but that church of fallible men is one that is full of the infallible Spirit of truth, who has alone made her the very pillar and ground of that truth. And you alone, and your opinions, or culture, or science, or whatever else on this earth might stand against her, have no ground or authority to do so. For she, altogether in her completeness, not you alone as an individual, is the pillar and the ground of truth.
You cannot claim to have a high view of Scirpture if the Scirpture has a higher view of the church than you do.
Obey the Scriptures, listen to the church.
