"Now woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are locking the kingdom of the heavens in front of men. For you are not entering, neither are you letting entering to enter. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are going about the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and whenever he may be becoming one, you are making him more than double a son of Gehenna than you are."
Matthew 23: 13 - 15, Concordant New Testament
For as much as I have been critical of the mainstream church, I pondered a question this week. What were Jesus' feelings of the mainstream church of His day? How did Jesus perceive the Pharisees who ruled over the temples of the Jewish faith? First of all, we need to define the word church into the context we are speaking to. The apostle Paul tells us that we (believers) make up the church {1 Corinthians 12:12}. Furthermore, we're told that the head of the church is Christ Jesus {Ephesians 4:15}. So, does Jesus loathe that which He sits at the head of? Absolutely not! There is a fine line these days between church and religion. Jesus recognized this when He spoke unto the Pharisees in condemnation in Matthew 23. Jesus wasn't railing against the church itself, but against the religion which had defiled His church. At the very heart of His criticism were the religious authorities of the day, the scribes and Pharisees. Can you imagine the shock if Jesus were to speak out in the very same way today and proclaim, "Woe to you pastors and worship leaders, hypocrites?" Yet this is exactly what Jesus was doing in front of everyone who would listen. Jesus was calling the Pharisees out. It's no wonder, then, that these same religious authorities came to hate Jesus and everything He stood for. When the Pharisees spoke of miracles of healing, Jesus healed. When the Pharisees spoke of the coming Messiah, Jesus told everyone who would listen that He was the one they spoke of. It's not hard to see why there was bad blood between Jesus and the Pharisees. For being the self-proclaimed leaders of the church of Jesus, they were leading many astray. Jesus knew this, and He let them know it.
Now, being true, in love we should be making all grow into Him, who is the head--Christ--
Ephesians 4: 15, Concordant New Testament
So, in answer to my question, does Jesus loathe the church? NO. Quite the opposite, Jesus loves His church so much that He gave up His own life for it {2 Corinthians 5:21}. Indeed, where we can get tripped up on this question is in the definition of church. The very word we have translated as church in our bibles can also be accurately translated as 'community.' We are, indeed, a community of believers in Christ Jesus. We...are his church. I believe that far too many well-meaning Christians look upon Jesus' woes to the Pharisees scriptures and come away with the false belief that Jesus disliked the church. It wasn't the church He disapproved of, but the way man made religion has treated those church members He loved so dearly. How would Jesus speak to those self-proclaimed church leaders of today? Well, I believe that He would call them out as He had the Pharisees. Why? When we get down to brass tacks of religion, we can see just why Jesus was so against it. Religion causes judgement. Religion grades the so-called righteousness of its members. Worst of all, religion has relegated a loving God into the role of a stern overseer. Is it any wonder, then, why we are seeing such a mass exodus from our houses of worship? We do well to remember that it has never been in the ornate brick and mortar buildings where we will find God. Paul assures us that to find God we simply need to look within{Galatians 2:20}.
Now all those who believe were also in the same place and had all things in common. And they disposed of the acquisitions and the properties, and divided them for all, forasmuch as some would have had need. Besides persevering day by day with one accord in the sanctuary, besides breaking bread home by home, they partook of nourishment with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor for the whole people. Now the Lord added those being saved day by day in the same place.
Acts 2: 44 - 47, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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