The Church Needs to Be More Like Jesus
7 Feb
During his earthly ministry, Jesus exhibited righteous anger toward the religious establishment more than toward anyone else. The religious Pharisees and scribes of that day were living by the letter of the Law, not realizing that they themselves were unable to keep it. They were blind to their own condition. In Matthew 23:13-33 among other places in the Gospel accounts, Jesus exposed their true character. They only appeared to look good on the outside. They were hiding behind a mask of false righteousness. They were hypocrites.
The church today needs to examine herself as the bride of Christ, recognizing that she is to be a pure bride. We are to be in love with our Savior who died to take away the stain of our sin. The church should never forget that it is only by grace that we stand clean before the Lord. The Church can become proud and self righteous and begin to fall into the trap of being just like the Pharisees who angered Jesus.
The Church is supposed to exemplify the life of Christ in the way that we interact with sinners. We are sinners saved by grace and we have been commanded by Christ to go into the world and share the message of salvation by grace. Jesus demonstrated many different ways that he reached out to sinners. The woman at the well in John 4:1-26 is a great example. Jesus reached out to her and met her at her level and began to enlighten her as to who he was and what he could do for her.
I also like the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8:1-11. Jesus deals gently in that situation also. He challenged those (religious people) who would stone her to do so only if they themselves were without sin. The challenge resulted in the accusers walking away in disgrace. What Jesus did next was exhibit grace. He said to the woman, “Where are your accusers?” She said, “I have none.” And then He said to her, “Neither do I accuse you. Go your way and leave your life of sin.”
This story depicts the balance that everyone in the Church needs to maintain. We are to be careful not to judge others while being careful to judge our own sin. The Church needs to make sure that she is not behaving like Pharisees who saw the sins of others while hiding behind a mask obscuring their own. The Church needs to have more of an active involvement of reaching out to others with the grace of Jesus rather than breathing out condemnation toward others. Like Jesus, the Church should see needs that are all around and sacrifice time and resources to meet them. The Church needs to have more involvement with “sinners” just like Jesus did. When we are like our Lord who came here to serve not to be served and to give our lives for sinners, we will be redemptive with our lives and will draw people to Jesus rather than repel them from genuine faith.
