Be a good child of God. Walk uprightly. Don’t defile your body as it is the temple of Christ. These were the teachings I was taught as a child. Growing up and being able to study the bible on my own, has made me understand some things about the church and what it stands for. One of my favourite is, without you and I, our churches are just like any other structure. In other words, we are the body of the church. This as I have learnt is not the belief of most Christians, as many belief the church to be nonexistent without a structure. As a result, more priority is placed on the structure than on the members. The building is now being developed daily, while the body is being neglected. My question is what happens when the structure is inaccessible? Or when there is no means of listening to our favourite pastors, what happens to our faith? What happens to the body of the church? What happens to the church?
The structure as I understand was first errected by God to create a mutal ground between Himself and man with His elected prophet as His mouthpiece. However, following the birth, death and resurrection of Christ, the need for a prophet became obsolete. Now we can get through to God without the physical structure. Christ became that structure, He became our intercessor, He became the mutual ground. Instead of accessing Him through the prophets, He gave us the holy spirit which abides in us through salvation. Now we can access Him through the Holy spirit and God through Him. Notwithstanding, there is a possibility of us suffering the spirit if we grow in sin instead of in spirit. Thus, our priorities as christians is to develop our spirit being and get ourselves rooted in Christ through the spirit. We should learn to focus more on our fellowship with Christ than brethens, so as not to end up like the pharisees in the time of Jesus Christ, steadfast in being seen in synagogues and obeying the laws, but never having a relationship with Christ.
And for the structures being erected, the priority should be to spread the news of salvation, strengthen the faith of the saved, and provide for the mission at hand.
My message to you this day is; instead of building your faith in men and his structures, build your faith in Christ, and Christ alone.
Shalom
