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Love God, Hate Church
A roadside
billboard says, "Love God/Hate Church?" It then proposes a
solution by offering something new. A new and different approach to the
matter. The language is really ambiguous. "Church" might be used
to mean a religious organization. It also might be intended to mean
assemblies with which one is dissatisfied. If one claims to love God,
but hates the Lord's church, then he really does not love God. If one
claims to love God but hates to worship God after His own order, then he
really does not love God. In either case there is utterly a fault, and
the solution is not to devise a new kind of church or a new kind of
worship (Matt. 15:8,9).
The solution to the problem is determined by the real problem
itself. If the problem is with the church one is acquainted with, then
he needs to search out a local body of saints that is following God's
pattern of worship revealed in the New Testament. Ample information is
provided in God's Word to acquaint people with the Lord's church. If
anyone hates the Lord's church, then he needs to listen to what God has
said and believe what He has said. Then he can really love God and keep
His commandments (Jno. 14:21,23,24). This includes the command to
worship Him in spirit and truth (Jno. 4:21-24; Rev. 22:9).
Entertainment, fun and frolic are not part of true worship. Reverence
and true devotion to God, sober contemplation of God's goodness toward
mankind should be at the heart of worship, so that people can mourn
their sins and rejoice in salvation in Christ, expressing their sorrow
and joy in prayers and singing and eating the Lord's Supper, along with
joyful giving and diligent study of the Scriptures. If these things do
not appeal to one, then he needs to get a new heart, rather than to seek
a new form of worship. God loves the church, and those who love God will
also love the Lord's church (Eph. 3:8-11; 5:25-27).
----- Gilbert
Alexander.
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