Is the Church Really Important?

It is so unfortunate that many people today who claim to be religious, do not feel that the church of our Lord as being all that important. However, we can clearly see in scripture the following:

God planned the church. The apostle Paul said this concerning the church: “to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:10-11). Therefore, if God did plan and purpose the church as the Bible says, then the church must be very important.

We learn also that the Holy Spirit revealed the church. The Lord’s church is revealed on the pages of the Bible, by the Holy Spirit. “how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:3-6). There are more than one hundred references to the church in the New Testament. The church must be very important since the New Testament says so much about it.

Jesus died for the church. Jesus said to Peter after Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God that “on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). We learn from the pages of the Bible that “Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Ephesians 5:25). Christ purchased the church “with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price for the church that He loved and established.

May we all fully understand the importance of the blood bought church of Christ!