Church and the Real World
God’s people are His church. The church of Christ is not a place but a people, a redeemed people who owe their whole identity to their relationship with Jesus. All that came through His grace (the power to make it happen) and our faith (the means of access to the power).
Yet often the church gets mistaken for other things. Often it is seen as the field in which we work. We do all our spiritual work in the church and we barely tolerate the world. Yet, Jesus is very clear that the field in which we labor is the world. The church is to live in the world. It is to be a light to dark world. It is here to change the world through the proclamation and incarnation of the Word.
Often the church is seen as the authority in our lives. What the church accepts or doesn’t accept is seen as the final world on what is right or wrong. Yet, Christ never gave it such authority. Jesus has that authority and He never gave it away. The church is not the police of the Word. It is the proclaimer of the Word. God will enforce His word. He told us to teach it and preach it.
Church is often seen a group of people who think they are perfect. Nothing is further from the truth. The church is a hospital for sinners that sinners are never told to leave. They are forgiven and they forgive but they never become perfect until Jesus takes them home to heaven.
The church needs to live in the real world. It needs to teach the ignorant, preach Jesus to the lost, feed the hungry, liberate the enslaved, comfort the hurting, and give hope to the hopeless. Who is the church? It is you and it is me. We have a lot of work to do.
