Biblical Essays
THE CHURCH – FACING ITS FAULTS
At StudyJesus.com, one of our many faults is that we are not objective about the Lord’s church. We openly state our deep and abiding love for the bride of Christ, the church for which He died. We cannot be coldly analytical about the church – any more than a husband can be objective about his wife whom he loves dearly. For example: if one says a man’s wife is too short, the husband will probably say, “No, she is petit and lovely.” Or, on the other hand, an objective person may say of someone else’s wife, “She is extremely tall and unsightly.” The husband says, “No, she is stately and possesses classical beauty.” The loving husband is not looking at his wife through objective eyes, but through eyes of love. When that occurs, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
This is the way StudyJesus.com is about the universal Body of Christ – His church. We look and we see loveliness, beauty, grandeur. We are not objective because we are a part of the church. When we hear criticisms we become militantly defensive. When one says the church is narrow minded our reaction is, “We must earnestly contend for the faith” (Jude 3). When one says the church is too Bible bound, our reaction is, “All scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). When someone criticizes the church for being too introspective our reaction is, “Do good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith” (Galatians 6:10). When one says the church is sectarian our reaction is, “Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, says the Lord...” (2 Corinthians 6:17a). When someone says the church is segregationist in practice our reaction is, “But the segregation is de facto, not dejure.”
Of course, there is merit in some of these criticisms. However, we believe that such criticisms would be mis-directed if applied generally to the church at large. These faults, if valid, reflect local, provincial, or regional traits instead of a general church characteristic. For example, the “Bible bound” charge may reflect the way outsiders see the church in the Bible-belt across the South. The “sectarian” charge may reflect the way outsiders view the church in the North or Northeast, where main-line denominations have been entrenched so long. Therefore, we pass on from these things to four faults which are more generally characteristic of the church. We at StudyJesus.com believe they become the bases for more valid criticisms of the church at large.
Four Basic Faults Stated
1. The church at large is not inclined to a life of sacrifice and suffering, meaning we are being weakened by opulence, materialism and the pleasure syndrome.
2. The church at large is not inclined to a life of study and worship, meaning we are becoming vulnerable to unstable doctrine and guilty of superficial and stereotyped worship.
3. The church at large is not inclined to a life of personal evangelism, meaning we have not yet caught the personal joy of salvation in Christ and we are not yet conscious that every accountable person, if not in Christ, is lost.
4. The church at large is not inclined to a life of benevolent involvement, meaning we have compartmentalized our Christianity. We have lost sight of the footprints of the one who went about doing good – and said, “Come, follow Me.”
Facing and Overcoming These Four Basic Faults
1. Lack of sacrifice and suffering may be overcome by denying self (Luke 9:23) and serving all (Mark 10:43-45).
2. Lack of study and worship may be overcome by hungering and thirsting after righteousness (Matt. 5:6) and longing for God (Ps. 42:1-2).
3. Lack of personal evangelism may be overcome by developing the concern that Jesus showed (Matt. 23:37) and cultivating a love for the lost, as Jesus demonstrated (Matt. 9:36-37).
4. Lack of benevolent involvement may be overcome by having the compassion that Jesus had (John 11:35), using what we have to help others (Matt.10:42), and remembering to whom Jesus made the statement, “Come, O blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world...” (Matt. 25:34).
In order to correct these four faults, and others, we must change our attitudes (Phil. 2:4) and our priorities (Matt. 6:33). May our love and commitment to God, Jesus Christ and His Church be so captivated by His Spirit that we shall go on unto perfection to become a church without blemish and without spot.
