The Perfect Church

I'm going to start this blog with two questions,

1. Have you ever attended a perfect church?

2. Assuming your answer to question #1 is "No," why do you think that is?

We live in a consumeristic society. Our expectations are high, and our demands are, well, demanding. Unfortunately, some of that attitude has crept into the modern American church and even been embraced and considered normal. But the church was never established as an organization for the purchase of comfort, experience, and entertainment. It is an organism, a body - the body of Christ.

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul writes,

Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.¹

What is striking in this introductory verse is that Paul refers to the church as the church of the Thessalonians. Without FanFair or calling attention to it, he is saying that people are the church. We (you, I, every believer) are the body of Christ. Assuming you are imperfect (I know that I am), we can state the obvious: the body of Christ is filled with imperfect and broken people on a trajectory of Christlikeness. We are living stones being shaped into a dwelling place for God.

Now, here's the point I'm getting at - and it is obvious, yet a good reminder: The fact that we are collectively his body, his purchased people, his bride, individuals gathered to worship the Most High, should cause us to view each other accordingly.

As for the saints who are in the earth,

They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.²

David viewed the saints, God's set-aside people, as majestic and found great delight in them. Can you say that of those you gather with on Sundays and sit next to week after week? Does your heart soar when you see a fellow believer, a saint who has been impacted by the grace of God? The Lord's exhortation to us is to never look down on others or look up to others in an unhealthy manner; both stances are injurious.

Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.³

The Lord has not called us to use one another as references to measure our stature or standing to. He's called us to honor one another.

• This means not looking down on others with contempt or arrogance from the lofty position of self-approval.

• This means not looking up to others with jealousy or envy wishing we could have what they have or be who they are.

• This means looking at one another, horizontally, as the beautiful bride of Christ, as objects of the grace of God, as purchased children, brothers and sisters, as beloved sons and daughters.

I'll ask my first question again, "Have you ever attended a perfect church?" How would you answer that now? Lord, give us your perspective!

References

¹ 1 Thessalonians 1:1

² Psalms 16:3

³ Galatians 5:26