As we know, Luke was a Gentile converted to Christ, and Paul was a Romanised Jew, brought up amid Gentile culture. In their writings both present a Church emergent from Jewish beginnings into Gentile fullness, moving unto its consummation as the whole Israel of God in the New Creation. In process of this they reveal its growth through and out of the form of neo-Judaism into which it early developed, and for a while remained in perilous uncertainty. Paul especially tells us what the true Church should be; Luke shows us what it then was. Through them we see what it should now be, and continue to be, throughout the entire age 'until the fullness of the Gentiles be brought in'.
So it is that in this Corinthian letter Paul sets out a form of worship and function which must surely be acknowledged as the only officially inspired form of Church worship and order on record. Therefore, however spiritual one may be, to have spent one's life establishing or building up a church to function in any form or order other than this must surely have been misspent labour. In many respects the Church is like God, and partakes of His nature, so that the same kind of things that are said of God may be said also of the Church. For instance, concerning Himself, God says that there is none other God but He, nor was there any before Him, nor any like Him, nor is there any beside Him. All this may be said also of the Church, for like its Creator it is unique; there is none other like it, nor beside it, even as there was none before it.
Taking up the point that there is none like it, it must be conceded that any attempt to create a Church which is anything other in manifestation than what God instituted is unwarrantably human, and totally misguided. How can any other way be other than man's way if it be not according to God's way? It cannot be better than this, so if it be different from it, it certainly cannot be equal to it either. However faint a representation of the original it may be, any church which at least attempts to function according to this revelation must surely be of the right order, even if for some reason it be not quite of the same Spirit or of equal power.
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G.W. North (1913 - 2003)
G. W. North was born in London England in 1913. As a young man he became aware that the Lord was calling him into the work of the ministry. At timely stages the Lord placed folk in his path who were able to direct him into the truth of heart purity and a more expansive understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He held pastorates in Kent and Bradford. By the late 1960s, following a significant period of ministry in Liverpool, he began a more itinerant ministry. This led him to many parts of the world, and occupied him until well into his eighties. His powerful preaching and the unique sense of the Lord's presence, which seemed to brood over his meetings, were always intensely challenging.The true secret of his remarkable ministry stemmed from his personal communion with the Lord Jesus. To him, 'entering the holiest' was not merely a theological concept; it was a distinct spiritual reality - and the central feature of his spiritual life. It was here, in the place of worship, that his revelatory ministry found its source. He preached from understanding and conviction. He was never the echo of another, nor did he take on board the ebb and flow of various contemporary emphases. He was not a man of 'books'; he soaked himself in Scripture and allowed it to saturate his heart and mind. Truly, this is a man who has lifted up a standard for the people. Mr North went to be with the Lord on 29th April 2003, shortly after his ninetieth birthday.