Church fellowship is foundation of the body of Christ

Can you love Jesus but reject his church?

I ask simply because that is a trend in American Christianity today.

Consider the evidence: Most Americans identify themselves as Christians, according to the Barna Group. Yet more and more Christians are bailing out of religious institution and going, well … nowhere.

The drift is toward lone wolf Christians who profess belief in Jesus Christ but have little interest or use for the church that bears his name. This trend was quantified and clarified this year through extensive research by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

So I ask the question: Can you love Jesus but reject his church?

First, let me suggest there is a right answer, and it’s found in Scripture, not our personal opinions. Truth is truth whether we like it or not, and it is God, not us, who decides truth.

The Christian who declares, “I love Jesus, but I just don’t like being a part of the church” is ignoring truth. Very frankly, the Bible makes no allowance for the lone wolf Christian.

Scripture tells us that the church is the visible expression of Christ in the world today; it is his body, and thus belonging to Christ and his church are synonymous.

A Christian cannot function apart from the church any more than a body can function without its head. “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do… and each of us needs all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5 – NLT)

Did you notice there is not a lot of wiggle room in Scripture for a person who attaches himself to Christ but disregards his church?

Please don’t read into this an uptight admonition to “get to church” this Sunday. I’m digging deeper than that.

The church is not a place or an institution, but a dynamic relationship among people who have been saved by the grace of God and are serving him – together.

When God places us into his family by our faith in Christ, we instantly enter a vital relationship with those who share that faith. We are, in a sense, married to one another; the glue that binds us is our mutual love and devotion to the Lord.

And we glorify God together far more than we ever would apart.

The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: “… let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25 – NLT)

Lone wolf Christians often tell me they’re turned off by the church. They then point to a very real dysfunction in an institution they used to attend.

I empathize with that concern. In fact, Christians tend to have a pesky devotion to institutions rather than people, buildings rather than Christ.

We’re called to be devoted to Christ and his body, not a particular institution.

Let’s face it, though, marriage is hard. It’s tough being knit together with Christians who don’t necessarily think the way you do or always act the way you’d like them to act. The elephant in the room is that others may feel the same about you and me.

Yet there is invaluable blessing in enduring the difficulties of church life.

Our participation in God’s family – the body of Christ – reflects his best for us. It is in this context that God uses us to meet the needs of others, have our needs met by them, all the while proclaiming the Gospel.

This trend toward lone wolf Christians grieves me. The statistics represent real people who are wrongly deciding to be disenfranchised from the vital relationships they need most.

Christian friend, if you’re going it alone, let me gently call you back into the fold of God’s family. Don’t just look for an institution or a building you like. Find a local assembly that clings to Christ and his truth, and step back into the joy and purpose of Christian fellowship.

Can you love Jesus but reject his church?

Absolutely not.