The Charter of the Church (1)
Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk worthily of the calling in which you were called, with all humility and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love; being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3
Exhort – Since Greek has no punctuation, it uses the position of a word in the sentence to give emphasis. If I want to put an exclamation point behind a word, I move that word to the first place in the sentence. The word exhort (parakalo) is the exclamation point word here. It is first. Paul is more interested in exhorting us to adopt the charter of the church than he is in speaking about his credentials or his previous teaching. First exhort! But what does this really mean? Is it just excited encouragement? Or prodding to perform? A look at the umbrella of meanings in this word tells us the story.
Parakaleo (the full form of the word) is translated by many different words in English. It can be translated “to aid, to call, to desire, to beseech, to help, to encourage or to comfort”. Context determines the correct choice. The word itself contains two Greek words, one that means “to the side of” and the other that means, “to call”. This is the same word that is used for the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John – the One Who comes alongside us to accomplish all of the meanings of this word in our lives. It isn’t surprising that Paul uses this word when he sets forth the charter of the church.
Recall the times in your life when you really needed a friend, when your soul hurt to have someone comfort you or lift you up or help you. Remember what it felt like when that person appeared, sometimes unexpectedly, to offer you aid when it mattered most. In that moment, you knew the deepest meaning of parakaleo. You felt relief. You felt love. You could pick yourself up and start again. You knew that someone else cared for you.
The charter of the church must begin with parakaleo. Too often the church today is not the place where I find relief, comfort, help and encouragement. If the church is going to be the house of the Spirit, it must take on the characteristics of the Spirit. It must be the place where I find those who come alongside. That is the unique character of the church. That is what makes the church an extension of the Christ. When my life is filled with sorrow, discouragement, failure, fear, doubt and confusion, the Spirit that lives in the community of the church must rush alongside. Did you notice that the word is never translated “to judge, to criticize or to condemn?” Parakaleo finds its fullest function where people hurt. Pain is the common language of all lost humanity. And relieving pain is the passionate preoccupation of parakaleo.
The church is the house of prayer. The church is the light on the hill. And it is the place of pain relief. Unless parakaleo is first in your church, all the rest will be out of order.
