Articles
Church or Not?
Yesterday, we posted a phrase that we hear a lot today, "I LOVE JESUS, BUT I'M NOT INTERESTED IN THE CHURCH". We asked you to take a day, and use scripture to see where you stand, with regards to that statement. How did you do?
First of all, the church is not perfect (Rom 3:23). It is filled with sinners, like me and you, but forgiven sinners, sinners who have chosen to try to be like Jesus who is perfect, but recognizing that we can't be perfect, so thus recognizing our sin (1 Tim 1:15). Many people say that makes us hypocritical. The Bible says it makes us saved (Luke 19:10)
Jesus wanted the church. He established it. He's the CEO to use today's terminology (Matt 16:18). He founded it, and here's the part that those who don't want any part of it seem to miss, we only get into it, when HE puts us there (Acts 2:47). It's not a social club. The church is the body of believers, saved by the grace of Christ, and God adds people to His church when they are saved (Eph 1:22-23)
Jesus died for the church, so He certainly wanted it (Eph 5:25). He died before it existed, yet it was always his plan (Eph 3:10). He purposed it, and it is the single thing that He is coming back some day to take home.
That's right, Jesus is coming back to take the saved home, and God puts the saved in the church, so it's the church He's coming back to get some glorious day (Rom 7:4, Eph 4:15, Col 1:18). He will not get the Harvard Law Club. He won't get the Greenville Country Club Golf Club. He's not looking to get the Manytown Volunteer Fire Department. He isn't going to get the Video Game of America subscriber list to determine who He's taking home to Heaven.
He has a book, with the names of the saved inscribed in it (Rev 3:5), and those names are the names of those in the church. So to say "I love Jesus, but I'm not interested in the church" says you don't love those Jesus loves, and you are not interested in Christ's purposed plan for us while we are here on earth. If indeed the above is true, and scripture says it is, to say you don't want the church, means you don't want to be in it yourself, and the logical conclusion from that doesn't require much thought. Jesus and the church can't be separated. If you claim to be "in Jesus", then understand that scripture says that puts you in the body of Christ, and the church is the body of Christ (Rom 4:7).
