It seems like every book on the church that I read anymore is angry... that it perceives the church to be so broken that it just needs to be blown up and rebuilt ground up. There is an element of counter-culture and revolution in this ideology.
We have forgotten who the church is... the bride of Christ... his beloved.
I am fully aware of the faults in my wife... but I love here completely. I can talk to her and encourage her to change in some way and she will respond because she know she is loved as she is. But if somebody else is critical or points out her flaws then I am incensed and rise up to protect her.
Ephesians 5:25-27
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Who does the correcting? Who washes her and cleanses her and prepares her? Christ does... he makes her blameless and without blemish... she doesn't do it on her own. And Christ is the only one who can... he's the one who loves her enough to change her gently.
If we don't love the church the way Jesus loves the church then we don't have the privelage to criticize or correct her. Fix the part you are involved in but be gentle and loving toward the body or your voice rings hollow.
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