The church is called the bride of Christ throughout scripture. With all of it's faults and blemishes, the church is what God has called on to spread the news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3:10 says, "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms." The church, with its imperfect people are to be sharing the perfect message of God's grace and mercy. After all, who has experienced this love from God more than us, right?
Sometimes we go through phases of life where we get caught up in negativity about the church. We must understand that this is Christ's bride that we are talking about. Can you love Jesus when you don't love His wife? Can you love God when you don't love the church?
These are questions that we need to wrestle with and we also need to compare ourselves against. Someone once said, "If you find a perfect church, then don't go there. You'll mess it up!" It's true, there are messy people with messy lives in the church, but we are nonetheless, even with every spot and blemish, still loved by God and married into His Son. How can we love Jesus truly if we don't love His bride?
There are some who will say that they can be a "Christian" but not go to church. If there is not some type of Christian fellowship going on, then I think that's a weak argument. How can a person practice the biblical one anothers (love one another, admonish one another, serve one another, forgive one another, bear one another's burdens, pray for one another, etc.) if you have no contact with a body of believers? How could you participate in the Lord's Supper as it states in scripture if you never meet with anyone? How can biblical koinonia (true Christian fellowship of sharing lives) happen if you never associate with brothers and sisters in Christ?
I think, actually, I know that there are many Christians who struggle with the church. Most of the time it's past woundedness from a bad experience where they were hurt or mistreated, or something along those lines. We must forgive and progress and move beyond the past and reengage with God's church. I know that there are many congregations out there that are full of God's love and grace. Every fellowship will have it's warts and blemishes, but God uses the church to accomplish His mission. We just need to be a part of it.
1 comment:
Another question to ponder. What is the church? I have always thought just like the song I learned when I was a kid. "I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together, all who follow Jesus all around the world. We are the church together.
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