Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Build Here
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:11 NLT)
We live in a culture where the church is under attack. Our values are mocked, laughed at, and, in some cases, even outlawed. Our belief about the family and about what matters in life is being challenged by an increasingly secular culture. And sometimes we wonder whether evil will prevail.
No, it won’t. Jesus said of His church, “All the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matthew 16:18 NLT). So, we keep marching forward.
Sometimes, however, people get upset with the church. They might say they’re bitter toward the church. They may have been mistreated. Or, maybe someone representing the church didn’t do a good job of it. They may even have done a horrible thing in the name of the church, and there is no excuse for that.
Then again, it could be that someone who is supposedly bitter toward the church feels that way because they lived in disobedience. They did something wrong. And then they faced the repercussions of it in the church. Maybe they were told to not do what they were doing any longer, so they’re angry at the church.
The church has its strengths, and the church has its weaknesses. But no matter what, Jesus Christ established it, and as Christians, we are a part of it. We need to love the church, support the church, and be a functioning part of the church.
If you are looking for a hypocrite-free church, then your search is over, because there is no such thing as a hypocrite-free church. Every church has hypocrites because every church is made up of human beings who fall short. We all have our shortcomings. We all have our flaws. But Jesus established the church.
The church is built on Christ, “the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). The apostle Paul wrote, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11 NLT).
Acts 2:42-47 gives us the basis of the early church, the church that changed the world. Verse 42 says, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.”
Then the passage concludes, “And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved” (verse 47 NLT).
Numerical growth is up to God. If a church takes care of its depth, then God will take care of its breadth. It doesn’t matter whether a church is the largest. What matters is having a strong church, a biblical church, and a church that is built on Christ Himself.
Is your life built on Jesus Christ? As that timeless hymn says, “On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand: all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.”
If you have built your life on a church, it is the wrong foundation. If you have built your spiritual life on a person, that is a faulty foundation as well. Build your life on Christ Himself.
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