Jacob Ninan
There is a story about a man who found two boys arguing. They told him that they were looking for the biggest liar on earth to give him a prize. The man looked at them with a show of disgust and told them that they should be occupied with worthier matters and that at their age he never told any lies. They promptly awarded the prize to him! One of the common reasons people give for not 'going to church' is that the church is full of hypocrites! Let him who has never pretended or put on an act cast the first stone!
"The Christian church is a society of sinners. It is the only society in the world in which membership is based upon the single qualification that the candidate shall be unworthy of membership" (Charles Clayton Morrison). As many have said, "a church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints." Speaking in one sense, people who come into the church remain sinners all their life, but they have come there to learn how not to go on sinning (1Jn.2:1), but become overcomers. Those who have been there as patients longer than the newcomers may have some practical tips to give from experience, but they realise that they are also patients still!
The church is not for perfect people. Imagine a man, who grew up in a family where there was fighting and quarrelling instead of love and affection, who grew up and mixed with the wrong kind of friends and ended up as a criminal. Then he gets converted and becomes a Christian. But before he gets time to make progress in his spiritual life and become more like Christ, he gets compared with a non-Christian who had a good upbringing and education and is very 'civilised' in his speech and behaviour. Then someone may think that this non-Christian is actually better than the so-called Christian and get upset with Christianity itself! No, all Christians are still under renovation; God hasn't finished with us yet. All of us struggle, to more or less extent, with the baggage we carry from the past which each of us has collected differently from our special circumstances – the Pharisee from his legalistic background to the person who has always lived a loose life – and only God is in a position to see us completely as we are through His eyes of grace.
We ought to walk in a way that becomes more and more worthy of the calling with which God has called us – as saints (Col.1:10). Even though it is ultimately a matter which each individual has to deal with, the church is one of God's provisions for this transformation to take place, the others being the new heart He has given, the Holy Spirit who dwells within and the written word of God.
Of course, when we say 'church' it is not the building we refer to, but the group of people who gather together in the name of their Lord and Saviour to worship Him, to learn from His word, to pray to Him and to receive comfort, encouragement, correction, teaching and guidance to live our life according to His will. The church is also referred to as the body of Christ with each of His children forming an individual part of that body. That is why 'going to church' should not be referring to going to a particular place, but going for a meeting together of that body.
One of the reasons why many do not grow up to be mature even after becoming a Christian is that they do not use this provision that God is offering them through the church. It is sad that many consider attending church as a duty to be got over with minimal commitment. That is because they have not understood how church can be a great source of blessing for them.
For some people, 'worship' is only about singing a few songs or going through a few prayers. Many of them stay passively listening to what is going on, mentally giving marks for the choir or just enjoying the music. But the time of worship in the church is where we can renew our personal connection with God, recognise and acknowledge who God is to us, take our position before God humbly seeing who we are before Him, setting things right with Him and resolving to walk closer to Him. If we join in the songs from our heart, thinking of what we are saying with our lips, examining ourselves to see if they are real in our practical life, giving thanks and worship to Him, etc., each single time of worship can be so meaningful to us that we actually look forward to the next time.
The message from the word of God can be like a mirror from God to show us where we stand before His eyes. Our goal then is not to evaluate the preacher and give him credit for his oration, but to get to know the will of God, to gain wisdom of God regarding how we ought to relate to Him and the people and things of this world. We receive encouragement, comfort, correction and direction from God that we need for our life (1Cor.14:3). If the Spirit of God prophetically exposes our true condition to us as we listen to the speaker (vv.24,25), that becomes the spiritual equivalent of a full body scan which doctors use to identify hidden faults in our physical body. If we are humble and sincere about wanting to become like Christ, won't we come again and again to get this scan done?
The word of God is to minister to our heart and lead us to action rather than to merely add more information to our mind. Preaching of the word is one of the main ways in which God gives us spiritual food (1Cor.1:21;1Pet.2:2). When God is trying to feed us, see what we can miss if we sit there with our mind occupied with our earthly concerns!
If the time of meeting with God through the church is to be utilised properly, it is essential that prayer must flow from our heart to God in spoken and unspoken ways as we spend time interacting with Him, asking for help and intervention in many ways. If there is no such inclination in our heart we must be such proud creatures who imagine that we can manage our lives without too much help from God (Matt.5:3).
It was during such a gathering of the church in Antioch in the early days of the church that God made clear His calling for Barnabas and Saul to embark on a missionary journey (Acts.13:2). It can be as we spend time before the Lord that He can speak to us too, giving us a burden in our heart concerning some work He wants us to do for Him. This is how we can grow up from being merely spiritual children to those who become responsible towards others in need.
God has never meant for us to be alone in our spiritual journey. It is when we get involved with other like-minded people in the church that we can receive much blessing in our lives in different ways and also become a blessing to the others. It may be that we can encourage one another, meet one another's immediate needs (Tit.3:14), work together for the building up of the others (Eph.4:16), etc. None of us is designed to stand alone without any support coming from the others, and in the same way, others too need us to meet needs in their life that God has equipped us for.
Of course, there is the challenge of having to bear with the weaknesses we see in others as well as becoming known for our own weaknesses. But, if we can learn to endure, this melting pot that is the church can work for the good of all of us in the long run, even though in the short term there may be hurts and misunderstandings (Heb10:36;Jas.1:12). Withdrawing from others when we get hurt is an easy way out, but that will prevent our further growth and also that of the body of Christ. Many people just try to avoid problems, but as a result they do not venture out into new opportunities of personal growth and ministries.
After all that is written about what the church can do for us, let us be clear about one thing – how much we will benefit from the church will depend on how serious we are personally about walking with God and how willing we are to serve others. Let us not look at the church as an institution or an organisation but as it is meant to be, the living body of Christ in which we have an important part to play.
-- Editorial in the Light of Life magazine, August 2019
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