The Mother of Believers

Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. EPHESIANS 3:21

The fourth and final book of the Institutes concerns what Calvin calls the external means or aids by which God invites us into the society of Christ and keeps us there. It begins with the church. And here Calvin, often thought of as a stern individualist, speaks with remarkable tenderness. He borrows an image from the early church father Cyprian: the church is our mother (Institutes 4.1.1–4).

A mother to her children

God could perfect His people in a moment, Calvin says, but He has chosen to bring them to maturity through the church’s care. There is no other way into life, he writes, unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and keep us under her care and guidance until we put off mortal flesh and become like the angels. Away from her bosom, he adds, one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation (Institutes 4.1.4).

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. EPHESIANS 4:11–12

This is a strong statement from a man who had broken with Rome. But Calvin did not believe he had left the church. He believed he was reforming it. And he was sure that no Christian could grow alone. We are weak, and God, in His kindness, gives us the preaching of the Word, the sacraments and the fellowship of believers to nourish us, as a mother nourishes a child.

Visible and invisible

Calvin distinguishes, as Augustine did, between the church as God sees it and the church as we see it (Institutes 4.1.7). The invisible church is all the elect of every age, known only to God. The visible church is the company of those on earth who profess to worship one God in Christ, are baptised, share the Lord’s Supper and hear the Word. In the visible church, Calvin admits, many hypocrites are mixed with the true. But we must honour it and keep communion with it, because it is where God has promised to meet us.

Let both grow together until the harvest. MATTHEW 13:30

The marks of the church

How can we recognise a true church? Calvin gives a short answer that became standard in Reformed teaching. Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists (Institutes 4.1.9).

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized … And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. ACTS 2:41–42

The strength of this answer is its simplicity. A true church is not one that is free of sin, or one with an unbroken line of bishops, or one that is large and splendid. It is one where Christ speaks through His Word and gives Himself in His sacraments.

And Calvin draws a humble consequence. Where these marks are present, he says, we must not leave a church lightly because of the faults of its members, or even because of lesser errors in doctrine (Institutes 4.1.12–16). He was scathing about people who separate from every church in search of a perfectly pure one. No such church exists on earth. The Christian who is impatient of imperfection should look first at himself.

In his sermon on All Scripture Calvin shows what he thought the heart of a true pulpit was: “When we go into the pulpit, we ought to be assured that it is God that sent us, and that we bring the message which he committed to us.”

Four offices

Calvin believed that Scripture gave the church a pattern for its ministry. Following the New Testament as he read it, and much influenced by Bucer, he set out four permanent offices in his Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 1541: pastors to preach the Word and administer the sacraments; teachers or doctors to instruct in sound doctrine; elders to oversee the life of the flock with the pastors; and deacons to care for the poor and the sick. The last of these will return in the final teaching chapter of this book.

Discipline: the sinews of the church

Calvin also believed that the church must exercise discipline. If the saving doctrine of Christ is the soul of the church, he says, discipline serves as its sinews, holding the members together each in his place (Institutes 4.12.1). Its purposes are threefold: that God be not dishonoured by openly wicked people being called Christians, that the good be not corrupted by the bad, and that sinners themselves be brought to repentance.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. GALATIANS 6:1

The discipline was graduated: private admonition first, then admonition before witnesses, then before the church, and only as a last resort exclusion from the Lord’s Table. Calvin insisted that it must be exercised with gentleness, aiming always at restoration.

An honest reckoning with Geneva

Here the reader must be told something plainly. In Geneva, the church’s discipline was carried out by the consistory, a body of pastors and elders that met weekly and summoned citizens for a wide range of offences: quarrels between husbands and wives, drunkenness, gambling, dancing, lingering Catholic practices, disrespect to ministers, absence from sermons. The records survive, and they show much that was pastoral — reconciling families, protecting wives, rebuking the powerful as well as the poor. But they also show a system that reached deeply into private life, that was backed by the city’s power to fine and banish, and that could be harsh and intrusive. Many Genevans resented it bitterly, and not all of them were libertines.

Calvin fought for years to ensure that the church, not the city council, controlled excommunication, and he was right that the Lord’s Table is not the state’s to govern. But the fusion of church discipline with civil punishment in Geneva produced things that few Christians today would defend. The principle of loving, restorative discipline in the church is biblical. The machinery of a whole city’s morals enforced by magistrates is not.

Speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. EPHESIANS 4:15

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Think of the church that nourished your faith. Give thanks for it by name, as a child thanks a mother.

2. If you have been drifting from the fellowship of a local church, take one step this week to return.

3. Ask whether you have been tempted to leave a church over lesser faults. Examine your own heart first.

4. If a brother or sister has fallen into sin, pray about whether and how you might gently seek to restore them.

5. Consider whether your church’s care for its members is marked by gentleness and aimed at restoration.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You loved the church and gave Yourself for her. Thank You for the mother who bore me in the faith.

Keep me in her fellowship, humble about her faults and mindful of my own.

Let Your Word be purely preached and Your sacraments rightly given, wherever Your people gather.

Give Your church a discipline that is gentle and restoring, and keep her from ever confusing Your rule with the power of the sword. Amen.