As you know, this is part three of a series on living a life that matters. This year I am doing a study on church and writing about it as I go, but I thought it best to kick everything off with a birds-eye view of creation, salvation, church, and how we as individuals fit into God’s eternal plan. If you haven’t already, I recommend reading from the very beginning.
What is the point of church? With as many frustrations and variations in the Christian church today, is what we know as church really what God intended? Did He anticipate there being so many different denominations, different approaches to Scripture, and different ways of living out faith? Or this all some grand mistake?
Is the church as God designed lost?
The Christian faith is a romance story. God refers to it as such throughout all of Scripture. Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, relentlessly pursues His beautiful bride, the church.
Our God does not sit and be served, as many lords and kings of this world are served. A husband who requires his wife to give him constant care and attention misrepresents Christ because that is not how He relates with His bride. Jesus pursues. Jesus loves with abandonment. The church—people who confess Jesus as their lord and lover—are not enlisted in a social club, but invited into romance.
Do you see the church as a place you experience the agape love and redemption of God, or is church to you a place where you experience the brokenness of man? Does engaging the church of Christ feel like a natural overflow of your commitment to Him, or does it feel like an obligation of the Christian faith?
Unfortunately, church in this life is both.
You see, the Christian church is not only Christ’s bride—the infatuation of His heart—it is also the avenue through which God loves and pursues people. But church is made up of humans. Broken humans who don’t love perfectly. And our brokenness scathes each other, making us less interested in being a part of such a people.
Isolating myself from church protects me from potential pain caused by the fallen nature of man, but it also prevents me from experiencing the love and passionate pursuit of God.
For whatever reason God chose to work through frail humanity to express His love to those saved and unsaved. If we want to experience more of God, than we need to be willing to experience more of His people. They are found in the church.
A life that truly matters does not happen outside of community. If we are going to live meaningful lives, we must live as God designed. That includes relationships with the people of God.
Church is choosing community in an age of individuality.
But how do we know which people are a part of Christ’s church? How do we know which community to join?
Sadly, many institutions—ones we may even associate with—are not a part of the true church of Christ. The church at Philippi seems to be the best example in scripture of a mature group of believers. They weren’t perfect, but Paul never gave them admonition or rebuke, either. They must have had something right. What was it?
1. A Common Lord
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. They are a part of Christ’s Bride. Backgrounds vary. Styles of life differ. But when we confess Jesus as Christ, we are united together in God’s family. Christ is our common lord. The Philippian church was completely submitted and surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
2. A Common Purpose
As people who have been saved by God, we are now participators in advancing the Gospel. The church at Philippi worked together, as a community, to further God’s glory and message of grace. Paul blesses them for the way they strive in unity, enduring hardships, for the sake of the Gospel. You can tell those truly a part of Christ’s Bride when they are actively at work reconciling broken people back to their Maker.
3. A Common Love
To the Philippian church, living was Christ and dying was gain. They loved Jesus so much, they were not frightened by opposition for it proved their salvation from God and their opponents’ destruction. For those a part of the true church of Christ, Jesus is the sole love of their lives.
The point of church isn’t to make us feel holy, it’s to help us live lives that truly matter, lives that function as God designed. We must choose to join a community of people who acknowledge Christ as Lord and structure their lives around the main purpose of advancing His Gospel because they deeply love God. That is what I believe about church.
