Many times, if not all of the time, when we hear the word “church”, we immediately think of the building. However, the Greek word for church is called the “ekklesia”. This is simply defined as an assembly or the called-out ones. Today, I would like to shift the focus from the building to the individuals.
Oftentimes I think and wonder why the world looks at us and shakes their heads. Could it be that we are acting just like them? When we look at someone like Kim Burrell, a famous gifted singer who is also a minister, her pride and arrogance become “The Problem with the Church”. Over the last few years, her actions, and her responses when she has been singing or preaching are full of ungodliness, and it demonstrates a lack of self-control. Scripture tells us in Proverbs 16:5 that, “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.” As Christians, we need to stop inviting her to our fellowships because she is clearly out of order and unrepentant.
One issue that I observe in “The Problem with the Church” is an affection, a love for this world. We all know the well-known passage of scripture that says in 1 John 2:15-16, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.” Leaders in today’s churches are willing to compromise, to relax Biblical standards, and are replicating worldly acts inside the church building just to have warm bodies in the pews. Did Jesus not warn us in Matthew 7:13-14 that, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” Then we have this warning as well in James 4:4 that reminds us, “You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.”
Another problem that I have seen in the church is a shift in God’s standards. News flash: There is a standard in Christ. If you choose to lower or change the standard woe to you. But let me remind each of us that God’s standard will not change for the culture or for you or for me. A change that is happening in the church today simply means a movement away from God and His Word. This is the strong delusion that we were warned about in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. As a result of believing lies instead of the truth of God’s Word, verse 10 tells us that people refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. Then verse 12 goes on to describe how they, the people in the church, enjoy evil rather than believing the truth. In simple terms, individuals who opt to disregard the gospel of Christ are subject to a powerful deception sent by God.
The state of the church, the “ekklesia”, saddens me even more when I think about how we are no different than Israel. Listen to what Zephaniah 3:1 and 2 says, “What sorrow awaits rebellious, polluted Jerusalem, the city of violence and crime! No one can tell it anything; it refuses all correction. It does not trust in the LORD or draw near to its God.”
“The Problem with the Church” is that we think we know more than God; we are arrogant, selfish, and full of pride. We all need to repent and pray for God to give us a heart of flesh that we will love Him and be devoted only to Him. As I have said previously, self-reliance is a killer. Remember, God is not going to step out of His holiness to cosign on our foolishness.