The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 1:18 that Christ is the head of the church. No denomination was listed in this verse, no street address or town. (I’m being a little ridiculous, but only to make a point.) The church the Apostle Paul refers to here is the collective body of Christians wherever they may be found. Christ is the head of Christians, individually and collectively.
There may be some who read this who will wrinkle their brows as they think of one congregation or another, and you wonder how Christ could be the head of that particular church.
Churches have had their problems from the very beginning. Consider Jesus’ parable about the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30). In this parable he tells of the farmer who sowed good wheat seeds in his field, but later an enemy sowed weeds that would look like wheat but were worthless. Jesus knew that Satan would still have his influence in our churches because some will pretend to have faith without truly accepting Christ. Others will continue to struggle to overcome various sins all their lives.
In the book of Revelation, chapters 2&3 give God’s judgement for and against seven major churches at the time it was written. Most of the churches had both positive and negative things written about them. But God called one of the churches “dead” and another he criticized for being lukewarm, neither hot nor cold; and his judgement was that he would spit them out of his mouth.
Now that we’ve considered all these negative things about churches in general, we must remember that God chose the church to be the body of Christ; and not only that, in heaven we (the church with the weeds removed) will become the bride of Christ. So it doesn’t seem right for us to belittle the churches. As Christians, it is our responsibility to become involved in our churches and do what we can to bring them up to God’s standard as the body of Christ.
Father God, help us to learn how to serve you through the church of Jesus the Christ. Help us to not become embittered when we see things that shouldn’t happen in our churches. Instead, strengthen us that we may one day soon take on our responsibilities as church leaders and make our churches into the holy sanctuaries they were meant to be.
Do you sometimes feel you are lost in a forest (or jungle) when you have big decisions to make? One group of friends pushes you to make risky choices while another scolds you for even considering it. Do you dare ask your parents?
