Who Needs the Church?

"Me and Jesus, got our own thing goin'. Me and Jesus, got it all worked out," sang Tom T. Hall a number of years ago. This erroneous sentiment has not died out. Many feel it is necessary to form a relationship with Jesus—but that the church is optional.

What causes people to think this way? Not the New Testament. The Bible teaches that Jesus and His church are inseparable: "And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all" (Eph. 1:22-23).

Thus, one of the ways that Jesus and His church are presented to us is as a human figure with a head and a body. Jesus is the head, and Christians are the members of His body—arms, fingers, legs, and toes. "Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Cor. 12:27). For someone to say, "I love Jesus, but care nothing for the church," would be analogous to saying, "I love my head but have no need for my body."

Why are people so eager to dispense with the church? Is it the idea that we may lose some of our independence? Is it the fact that commitment is required? Are we afraid of involvement with others? But that's exactly the way the Lord designed the church. Christians are to be "one another" people. Consider the following:

We are both to suffer and rejoice with one another (1 Cor. 12:26). We are challenged: "Bear one another's burdens…" (Gal. 6:2) and to "exhort one another daily…" (Heb. 3:13). Other admonitions include:

"And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works" (Heb. 10:24). "Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another" (Romans 12:10). "Owe no one anything except to love one another…" (Rom. 13:8). "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1 John 4:11). "…love one another fervently with a pure heart" (1 Peter 1:22).

Brothers and sisters exist to help one another in the ways described above (see also Philippians 2:4, 1 Corinthians 10:24, and 1 Thessalonians 5:11). If we say, "I'm not interested in the church," we are robbing ourselves of all the advantages God designed for our benefit. Furthermore, to deny the church is to deny ourselves the possibility of salvation since (as already shown) Jesus built and purchased the church with His own blood. He is head over it and "is the Savior of the body" (Eph. 5:23).

Jesus never promised to save detached "Christians." He will save only those who are part of His body, the church—those who have performed the functions that brothers and sisters ought to perform. For more information about the church, read the Book of Acts, which outlines its early years. Also consider 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 and the book of Ephesians.