The Many Faces of the Church

Matthew 22:35-40

³⁵ Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
³⁷ Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”


There are many faces or personalities exhibited by what is called the Church of Jesus in today's society. There are legalists, super spiritualists, in-betweeners. There are head-shakers and finger-pointers, there are those that accept everything and those that accept nothing as pure doctrine. There are enough interpretations of the bible to confuse anyone not of a pure heart. There are compromisers and those that go beyond the bible into private interpretations. It seems as if we have what was referred to in Dr. Hook's song, as a regular "freakers ball", quite pleasing to the Lord indeed, NOT! How is it that the church started so pure and so right, only to find the sad situation of today, disassociation among Christian groups with as much difference as night and day, every body doing their own thing? This is how they know we are Christians, by what?

Do you love your fellow Christian? Do you love your enemies? Are we just interested in what feels right to us or are we interested in purity and holiness in the Lord? We can play mind games and word games and many other kind of games, but in the end we must walk in commitment to the righteous standard of our Lord and walk out our life within these standards. We may fall a thousand times, but we must get back up, not making excuses, not accepting moral failings, but holding fast to the pure principles of our Father's righteousness in LOVE. There must be love enough to forgive and to fight with each other until we reach victory over our moral  failings. Tough love, but true love is needed in the Church, one that says a brother or sister is worth standing with and fighting with, because Jesus has made us righteous, and we must fight to maintain a state of obedience to Him and our Holy Father.

There is no problem walking the path of righteousness if we are totally obedient, but our fight is within our selves, fighting those lusts and pride that do so easily entice us to draw away into our own set of rules and way of living. There is but one way to walk with the Lord, and that is walking in truth of heart. A broken and contrite heart is what the Father uses, a heart of compassion and tender before Him. This truth in the inner man or woman is the very foundation by which anyone may continue to abide with the Lord.

Allowing this truth to continue to lead us into our life endeavors is what shapes Christian living. Missions, Benevolence projects, Ministries all must be borne of a true Christian heart of love or they are only dead works masquerading as Godly endeavors.  We don't have to contrive a move of the Spirit, it will move from a pure heart as a natural consequence of righteous living. The living must be first, then the work. The foundation of righteousness must be true or the building will be built to fall.

John 4:23-24

²³ But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”