“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18
I wanted to use Matt. 16:18 as my starting point, not to debate the local church verses the mythical universal church. My thought here is the importance of the local church, because so many today do not reverence the church. The word reverence here means -by analogy to be in awe of- the church as though she is metaphorically the body of Christ and one day will be the bride of Christ. Therefore, the church must be respected for the glorious and holy institution that she is, not as a simply place of pleasure. The church is important to the Christian because she is the pillar and ground of truth. “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15 If a church is not the pillar and ground of truth then it is not a church, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (5) Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” Revelation 2:4 – 5 The church is where you not only find truth it is where you find Christian love. This love is of Jesus Christ and He instituted the church in the world to have love, share love, and a place to praise and love God. The church is the most holy place on earth, not Israel, not the Holy Lands, not any symbolic thing or place on earth, just the local New Testament Church. The church must be the immovable pillar where the absolute truth is taught, where the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is taught and respected as the absolute Sovereign Beings that they are. The church is about one focus, worshipping the Triune God in spirit and truth. The local church is the seminary of truth and only truth should be taught there. This is the reason the church, when assembled is Holy ground. Every member of a local church is a part of the body, and every member is very important to the local body. “For the body is not one member, but many. (24) For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: (28) And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” 1 Corinthians 12:14, 24, 28 Therefore, you as a member was set in the local church to serve God, Jesus Christ, as it pleases Them. “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” V. 18 What a true blessing, God saves by His grace, then God sets us in the church as He chooses, to serve the purpose He chooses. God chooses the building and body parts and calls them the body of Christ which gives us all a more special membership. Being a child of God is so special and being a member of the Lord’s church is also very special, however both can be abused. God’s grace can be abused by Christians sinning at will, by others not seeing your light shine. The blessing of being a church member can be abused by not attending church, this is an awful disobedience to God. There are very few true reasons for a Church member not to be in church. God said, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25 Another failure by many members is tithe and offering to the Lord’s house. It is a fact that the Lords churches suffers in many ways, but the two most common ways are attendance and money. It’s a real blessing to see God’s children following the scripture and walking in His word, but a sad thing when we see those not following the scriptures. If you are saved and you’re not a church member you truly need to join and be a part of God’s church. Second, if you’re a church member that doesn’t do as God commanded it’s time to straighten that out. Every Christian is saved because God saved them for a reason, and that reason is not to disobey the word of God.
