Often it is preached that God created three institutions, the home, the nation, and the church. It can readily be seen that God authorized and established each of these and that such efforts can be explained as instituting them. In this sense institution means setting it in operating order to accomplish a goal.

 

Institutions also carry in their implied meaning the idea of structure and hierarchy. In a corporation levels of management are established and carefully adhered to. The chain of command is put in place so that all levels are interactive and accountable. The same exists in government and the military. This structure doesn’t always follow, however, in the institutions God established and it would be a mistake to make it so.

 

For example, in the home, there is structure. God made the husband head of the wife (1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:23). Parents are the heads of the children (Col. 3:20; Eph. 6:1). But this structure is not tyrannical but motivated by love. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, being willing even to die for her (Eph. 5:25). Parents are to love and nurture their children. This love overrides the negative sense of institution and makes it rather a family. Family has a very different overtone than institution.

 

The church likewise, has structure. It has overseers, or elders, to rule and direct it. But they themselves are just members of the church. Christ is the only real head of the church (Eph. 1:22-23). Therefore the most common description of interactions between members of the church is of family. The word most commonly used for leadership in the church is elders, older males. This term is often translated as fathers (1 Tim. 5:1). This passage describes not only appointed elders, but all the older men, as well as the older women, younger men and younger women as recognized positions in the church. Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters are the relationships that characterize the church. Sounds a lot like a family.

 

The church should view its elders as fathers, with proper respect for their authority, but also as a child looks up to his loving father. Such a father accepts his responsibility but with love “feeds the sheep” (1 Pet. 5:2). This relationship looks very dissimilar to the corporate hierarchy of business or government. It reflects the warm and loving atmosphere of a good home. That’s what God wants for His spiritual children.

 

We must make it clear to the world that God has created the institution of the church with all its order and structure. To ignore those means it ignore God. But the church must also show the world the proper love to exhibit between brothers and sisters. When both are done the full picture of God’s plan is revealed.