THE CHURCH THE JILTED WOMAN.

The Bible’s view of the church and the average church-goers view of the church are so different that one would hardly know they were talking about the same woman. For example the Bible calls the church ‘the pillar and ground of the truth.’ Many, however, have found the church to be place where error abounded and often destroyed the people the church was designed to help. As a result, to many people, the church is a place that can’t be trusted. It is a den of deceivers rather than a sanctuary of saints. The Bible sees through all the ugly scars of the church and always treats her kindly. In the eyes of Christ she is His bride and He is currently adorning her for the day she shall soon be brought into His home and where all creation will eternally look upon her glory. But to many the church is nothing more than an ugly servant girl who is tolerated only because the Master has forced us to love her even though we recoil at her very presence. Not only is the church the bride of Christ but she is also said to be the very body of Christ who is her head. The body is not in any way perfect. This is why each part of the body must be actively engaged in helping every other part of the body until she reaches the status of the fullness of Christ. Alas, many see the church as a grotesque body whose every part is grossly out of proportion to every other part. Instead of building each other up, many in churches eat each other alive by gossip, slander, unkind words and backbiting.

But… but….. with all that being said, the church is still the only institution established to be transformed into the very image of God. In the Old Testament, God operated through a nation (Israel) which was broken down into lesser units called tribes and families. To Old Testament covenant people their identity was tied to what nation, tribe and family they belonged. But with the coming of Jesus all those institutions were eclipsed by one greater. The church was born at Pentecost and it was not a ethnic, familial, amalgamation of people but a mystical group of diverse peoples who all find their identity in Jesus Christ. Paul could therefore say that the church had “neither Jew nor Greek…. slave nor free…male nor female.” All who confessed the gospel were “one in Christ Jesus.” From the rubble of an ethnic nation that revolted against her God and crucified her Messiah arose this new creation that consisted of every tribe and tongue and nation. From that point on the New Testament writers begin to speak of this institution alone and frame all their theology within its borders. Beginning with the epistles, the Bible shifts radically in the direction of the church. So different is the church from any previous institution that it takes decades of wrangling among the believers in Jesus to establish her identity. Paul takes the best stab at defining the church describing her under the metaphors of temple, body and family. Ironically, all of these metaphors are a newer version of what the Jews had previously been. Israel had once housed the Temple of God. Now the church was that Temple. Once Israel had been a nation that reflected the transcendent God. Now the church becomes God’s very body through the God-man Christ Jesus. Once Israel Israel was the in the family of God, being called His son. Now that family identity with God belongs to the church, for each Christian has been adopted by God in a personal and eternal relationship.

That last one is shocking to many today. Many are resistant to relegate the family to a lesser role and to see the church as the primary institution of God in this New Covenant age. Yet one cursory read of the New Testament finds that such a change has indeed taken place. All those tender familial words that once defined the insular family - mother, father, sister, brother, son - are now used to define relationships within the church. Sensing this subtle change many Christians have hunkered down to defend the insular family and refuse to allow the church to become their primary family. Sadly, many Christian groups continue to worship the insular family at the expense of the greater institution, the church. In some quarters, to touch the family is to commit the highest form of blasphemy possible. Church becomes an option while family becomes the one institution to be protected at all cost. Yet this attitude seems contrary to the flow of the New Testament where the church is seen as the primary community of God and the place where believers are to grow and to love and to be loved. The insular family is not the church though many try to make it so. Jesus of course was one of the earliest to see this paradigm shirt from insular family to family of God. When his family tried to rescue Him from spending too much time with His disciples, Jesus simply waved a dismissive hand, and pointing to his students and said, “My mother, and my brothers, are these who hear the word of God and do it.” Jesus threw down the gauntlet. He was willing to stake His future with the disciples rather than His biological brothers and sisters.

Many today read passages like this and gloss over them. Experience has taught them that the family is the only unit they can trust so they will cast their lot there and ignore the local church. This results in many Christians devoting their gifts, talents, emotional energy to things outside the church body. Family birthday parties and other cultural events have, it seems, usurped the church’s party, the communion service. Worldly appointments too frequently cut out one’s appointment to meet God in worship. Churches that used to meet twice on Sunday and once during the week, now barely meet on a Sunday morning. Apathy toward the worship service seems to be declining as time goes on. Live stream options have increasingly supplanted in-person services thus cutting off personal contact where spiritual growth takes place. The Bible militates against these trends. And standing in the way of this move away from the church is the Bible itself which is stubbornly pro-church. And yes, even when the church operates as the most rudely dysfunctional family ever (think Corinth) the Bible still promotes her as the only true option for spiritual growth and fellowship. Belong not to the body, the Bible implies, and you are like a rotting limb detached from the body of Christ. There is no other place for the Christian to be than in the womb of the church. The Christian’s motto should ever be, “It ‘s the church or bust.”

But does that mean the family or other social relationships are to be ignored by the Christian? Not at all. The church is not the sole venue for socio-spiritual life. It is the chief place. But we must be careful. Undiscerning dedication to a church body can be dangerous. When churches demand everything of their congregants it can easily morph into a cult. There is life outside of the church. Christians should be out and about in the world showing forth the light of the gospel. Christians should leave the church in order to bring others into the church. But at the end of the day, when the work of fishing is done, the saint returns to that safe harbor where he will grow and enjoy the fullness of the kingdom of God on earth. To be sure, the family has great importance as the unit that stabilizes culture and community. Where the family fails, culture collapses and the church suffers. It should not surprise us that the Bible pays tribute to the family. Children are instructed to follow the Mosaic precept of being obedient to their parents in all things. When a lady in the church over 60 becomes a widow, it is the family that has the primary responsibility for her care. We all know that Paul invoked curses upon a man who did not care for his own family who was declared to be “worse than an infidel.” Healthy families are indispensable to the health of the church but they cannot replace the church. It alone is the body of Christ.

Indeed, Ephesians 1:23 calls the church the body of Christ on earth. She is the alter ego of the Savior for this present age. When you see the church you see Christ. The church is His hands and feet. And when one attacks the church, let that one know he is attacking the Lord. Paul found this out as he rode toward Damascus to persecute Christians. Jesus asked him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Jesus has bound up His destiny with His church. You cannot have one without the other. Whenever one finds the church you can be sure that he will find the Head there as well.

How then does this body grow? Good doctrine and cogent teaching are the nutrients that stimulate the church toward maturity. She feeds on the sincere milk of the word and grows thereby. And the one who feeds her is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He holds out the spoon laden with food. And those spoons are His choice instruments, the word of God, spiritual gifts and spiritual leaders. These choice delicacies conspire to build up the church and equip the saints till they all come “to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect (complete) man” (Eph. 4:12-13).

Why then do so many turn away from the church and romance the world instead? The reasons are many. But the major problem is that many Christians are looking for a church to satisfy them instead of desiring to satisfy her. A proper view of the church boils down to a matter of perspective. Some Christians come to church to take from her whatever she is willing to give. Others come to the church to beautify the body. Those who come to take from the church will soon be disappointed. The church will never give these kinds of people enough. And soon enough, when they have tapped out the church they will grow disenchanted and will walk out on her seeking a more attractive and user friendly lover. But in doing this they are leaving the only woman that can bring them into the presence of God. To jilt the church is therefore to jilt your own soul. And that is a trade-off no soul-concerned sinner should ever take.