The Reformed Church is the Christian church that emerged in Europe during the 16th-century European Reformation, reforming the church from the Roman Catholic corruptions that had emerged under the Roman Catholic pope in Rome.

These reforms are generally described as “Reformed in Doctrine, Worship and Practice”.

500 years after these events, there has been a marked decline in this trilogy among Reformed Churches.

Their doctrine is now selective, and it has not maintained the Reformed slogan Always Reforming. Rather, it seems to be Always Revolving, going round in circles and making only slow progress towards the biblical Millennium of Jesus’ agenda.

The worship in Reformed Churches has markedly declined from Reformation principles, having abandoned the Regulative Principle of Scripture.

Reformed practice is largely ignored and has never been thoroughly developed beyond reforming the structures of church government. The Establishment Principle, a significant contributor and catalyst for Reformed practice in any nation, is poorly understood and is being ignored in multi-cultural societies. Christian behaviour is understood even less.

Thus Reformed Churches seem to concentrate only on Reformed Doctrine and pride themselves in maintaining the Five Solas of the Protestant Reformation, along with the five distinctive differences between Calvinism and Arminianism, known as the Five Points of Calvinism (memorized by the acrostic TULIP). There are, of course, many more points of Calvinism, but these five points seem to be the only ones generally known.

My point is that Reformed Churches have become selective in their doctrine. Some have dropped the word Reformed because it is now rather anachronistic while others glory in the term Reformed as their unique characteristic, their USP, if you will, but to what extent are they Reformed?

The inadequacy of teaching such basic doctrines is threefold:

1. The Reformed doctrine taught is selective and not “the whole counsel of God” Act 20:27.
2. Without Reformed worship, churches do not adequately hold on to Reformed doctrine. Global church history demonstrates this. Where Reformed worship has survived, Reformed doctrine is largely maintained.
3. Without Reformed practice, Reformed churches do not grow; let Christians study this for themselves.

Let us consider these.

Biblical Doctrine, Worship and Practice

It is time to return to biblical Doctrine, Worship and Practice.

Biblical Doctrine must be preached by preachers committed to preaching the whole counsel of God. This requires diligent and earnest Bible study and prayer, producing exegetical sermons applying the Word of God to whole congregations as such, and to individuals in particular. Conviction of sin must go beyond the Ten Commandments to include the failure to practise brotherly love. Christians have the additional obligation to love each other as brethren, and not only as neighbours which the Ten Commandments teach. The apostle John identified in his three General Epistles the failure to practise this Christian behaviour in congregations even in his day. “Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning” 1Jn 2:7, “not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another” 2Jn 1:5. John called them back to the brotherly love that Jesus proclaimed as the evidence of loving Him Jn 14:15. Jesus told His disciples to continue in His love and to love one another Jn 15:9-12.

“A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, to the intent that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another.”

The Lord Jesus Christ – John 13:34-35

The apostle Paul identified brotherly love in 1Cor 13 as the means of solving the many congregational issues he addressed in his two long epistles to the Corinthians, as well as any future ones that may arise when he was away to heaven and would not be present to resolve them. “Let brotherly love continue” Heb 13:1 proclaimed the apostle.

Biblical worship seeks to worship God according to His revealed will in Scripture. The Lord “seeks such to worship Him” Jn 4:23. On the other hand, God is not well-pleased Mal 1:10 with dishonourable worship Mal 1:6, which does not maintain divine standards in worship Mal 1:7-9. The Lord noted that the heathen put more honour and diligence into their false worship Mal 1:11 than the children of Israel put into His worship Mal 1:12. The result was God’s curse Mal 1:14 upon their worship and His refusal to accept it Mal 1:13.

It is little wonder that neglecting the Regulative Principle in worship leads to grieving God’s Spirit Eph 4:30 and the withdrawal of God’s blessing. One manifestation of this is the withdrawal of His favourable presence Act 16:6-7, Rev 2:5, Rev 3:3,16,20 and this results in poorer preaching of the Word of God until it is taken away and replaced by another gospel Gal 1:6-9.

Biblical Practice needs to go beyond the biblical government of the Church. It needs to include the spirit in which ecclesiastical rule is exercised. It should not be the arrogant, dogmatic, authoritarian attitude of Diotrephes 3Jn 1:9-11 but the shepherding oversight taught by Jesus Lk 22:24-27 and His apostle Peter in 1Pe 5:1-5, “not being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock”, which is far removed from the grandiose self-promotion of the Roman Catholic pope in Rome 2Th 2:3-4, who pretends to be Peter’s successor.

Most trouble in the church arises from maladministration – from its unbiblical practice. There is an eclectic attitude to discipline among most churches, and Reformed churches are not much better. Paul discovered that his teaching against ungodly toleration of immoral behaviour in his first epistle to the Corinthians 1Cor 5:1-13 had been taken too far by the Corinthians and so he wrote to them his second epistle in which he told them to show Christian love and forgiveness to the repentant brother who had been brought to depression by their excessive discipline 2Cor 2:5-8. The Christian church has been slow to learn the role of brotherly love in promoting the spiritual health of a congregation, which Paul went on to teach in 1Cor 13.

Unchristian fleshly behaviour Gal 5:19-21 has fractured Christian congregations and set back the witness and progress of the Gospel in each generation in which it happens. It is essential that biblical behaviour is explained and preached from Scripture so that it is practised in Christian congregations and that matters are not left to gut-feelings, which are too often worldly, even in the godly. It is common for Christians to act according to the flesh Gal 5:16, and even to do the devil’s work Mat 16:23, Mk 8:33, so that Christian preachers are to encourage and motivate the brethren to brotherly love, to help and pray for one another, to recover each other out of the snares of the devil 1Tim 3:7, 2Tim 2:25-26, and to provoke one another to good works Tit 2:14-15.

All Scripture is given to this end 2Tim 3:14-17, “that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto all good works”, and therefore it needs to be studied and preached.

Let the Reforming work begin – to Christ’s praise, for the Father’s glory Jn 15:8, promoting the welfare of the Christian church and the benefit of the world.