The church is not simply one church, but all.
The other day, my pastor was talking about being committed to “our” church. He put some people down because they were not committed to “our” church. These people had left the church they had gone to previously and gone to a different church. My pastor emphasized greatly the fact that they were not committed to “our” church.
Do we have to be committed to “our” churches, or “the” church?
Have you ever noticed that, in the Bible, it never talks about “a” church, only “the”? The only other word that is used other than the, is my (when God himself is talking). This surprised me greatly, I thought over what my pastor said and applied what I had learned to this. I then came to the conclusion that we do not have to be committed to “our” church, but “The” church, the one that is God’s Bride! Then I remembered something I had been told once, “If you leave the church that you think is not prospering, you have just left all those people to die.” Well this is confusing. The only thing I could come up with that makes sense is this:
Stay unless God says “Go”
I think it is amazingly humorous that I came up with this. I almost laughed out loud! My church has a regular habit of saying, “Go unless God says ‘No’” What they mean is missions related, though. Like, “Go [to Cuba and basically anywhere else] unless God says [that you shouldn't]“ But, of course, the way I mean is simply this:
Don’t leave your church unless God tells you that you should, and if you do, you’re not evil.
