The Primary Mission of The Church-Seeking the Lost

As I was thinking about what to write this week, the verse in 1 John 2:6 suddenly popped into my head. It says: “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” The Holy Spirit brings to remembrance the things taught by Christ to His disciples while He traversed this earth with them. The Holy Spirit still has a relevant message for the church of Christ today. Are we walking like Christ did?

 I was listening to the radio on my commute to work when a song started to play. It posed a question that is extremely relevant to the church today. “If we are the body, why aren’t His arms reaching; why aren’t His hands healing; why aren’t His words teaching; …why is His love not showing?”

The book of 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31 describes the church as the Body of Christ. The body of Christ is not made up of one member, but many members with diverse gifts and talents, all bestowed by the same Holy Spirit (v14). If this is so, why do some of us think that we can do everything ourselves and that nothing anyone else does is good enough?

Our primary aim as the church of Christ is to promote the gospel of Christ. Are we fulfilling this aim, or are we too busy fighting factional fires within the church? My college lecturer once told me that the greatest hindrance to any work is over-analyzing things. He called it “paralysis by analysis”. Are we as church members so busy analyzing each other’s performance that we are paralyzed when it comes to taking the message of the gospel of salvation to a dying world?

I am not saying there isn’t a place for correction in the church. The Bible speaks of correcting our brothers and sisters in the spirit of love, but we should also watch lest we ourselves fall into the same temptation as they have or worse still, end up trapped in the spirit of hypocrisy (Romans 2:1-3,21-24). The spirit of hypocrisy is the easiest spirit to fall into when we find ourselves continually judging others, instead of doing some soul-searching ourselves. Satan uses this as his best method of attacking believers as their attention is taken off themselves and focused on criticising others, giving him free reign to attack, divide the church and hinder the spread of the Gospel.

At the end of time, the masses will reject Christ (Rev 20:8). The only question is, will they be rejecting Him because we as the Church failed to fulfill our mission and became a stumbling block to the world? Will it be because we failed to show Christ’s love for them because we were too busy squabbling amongst ourselves and instead they saw this and then decided that if that’s what Christians do, then they don’t want to have anything to do with Christ? Will it be because we dreamed small, came to church to warm the pews and to get entertained? Proverbs 29:18 says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” It’s time for the church to arise with renewed vigour and passion for the lost and to seek them like Christ, the Good Shepherd seeks them!

The Dangerous Deception of Hypocrisy

It amazes me how much we, in modern society today, harbour a spirit of bitterness and resentment against each other. We are constantly judging each other, sizing each other up and competing against one another. Because of this, our world is in a state of chaos and disrepair.

The judgements we make of others do not usually come from a spirit of love either, but one of hypocrisy. We are often guilty of breaking the very same laws or standards that we so readily accuse others of breaking. We are a selfish and self-righteous people.

We don’t seem to realize that judging others in a hypocritical spirit breeds a cycle of rebellion and satan is the author of rebellion. No one wants to take the advice of a hypocrite. People expect us to not just “talk the talk”, but also to “walk the walk.” There is always a practical side to what we profess and we must hold fast to our profession. True authority comes from living out the Word of God, just as Jesus did. That’s the reason everyone marveled at His authority. What gives us the right to judge others when even Jesus Christ, who was and is truly the Judge of the Universe, did not judge us until He had walked our human experience!

Let us not let hypocrisy corrupt our hearts like leprosy corrupts the body. Let us correct others in a spirit of love only, and not to make ourselves look better in comparison to them for God hates the proud and He will make them low.  Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and double standards in Matt 23:23, yet we are in danger of the same sin today. We already have one “accuser of the brethren.” We need more defenders of the brethren i.e. those who lift up the downtrodden and the weak instead of trampling on their dreams and hopes! Remember, justice and mercy do mix-they come together in the form of Jesus Christ.

Scriptures: Matt 7:1-5, 1 Cor 6:1-5,  Matt 19:28, Ps 98:9, Ps 26:1,  Rev 12: 10,  Matt 23:23-28