I cannot count the numerous lessons I have taught and heard on the church. I know you have too. Maybe we have heard so much about the church of Jesus Christ, His body, His assembly that we have grown too accustomed, to comfortable. We have all heard the little statements made about the church that it is a place for the sick and so forth. In all this what do we believe?
People leave the church. No, they leave the assembly of saints because someone says something they don't like or their feelings are hurt. Someone does something terrible such as an affair and people react with such disdain and disgust (which should bother us to our souls) but they leave! It's not about false teaching or the intention of leading people astray through false teaching. It is simply feathers getting ruffled or sin reaches in and takes hold of a life and people leave. We take the mind-set that we understand because such immorality (remember the Corinthians - I Cor. 5?) is sickening and why would they stay when something of this magnitude has happened?
Wait...Jesus built His church. That's who we are! We're not some social outlet or community body! We belong to Jesus, don't we? He calls us His brother, each of us. He's not ashamed of that. We don't treat one another like that when we feel we have been wronged! People leave, ashamed. Where is the devotion, love and care? Doesn't Jesus care deeply for His own? Doesn't His own go astray and cause deep heartache and disappoint? Yet here is the Savior of His body, reaching, loving and staying dedicated to His own whom He loves to the end!!! When you love something, especially family, you're gladness for them is the reason you love. When disappointment hits and the sadness hits, that's the reason for loving it more! Didn't we hear Jesus when speaking of seeking the lost sheep, the lost coin or the lost son? Jesus spoke of the intense love of the Father to seek such. With all our faults and frailties as humans, the Lord still pleads for us, interceding for us and reaches with depths of grace and mercy because He loves His own body!
The bottom line is our gladness, our sadness, our anger and our pleasures are all the more reason to stay to help, to nurture and love the church more than ever now! That's acting like Jesus! We should love the church and love it more when Satan attacks. Isn't that what Jesus does? To leave an assembly, are we really abandoning Jesus?
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