Anxiety  For The Church

 

In Paul’s catalogue  of experiences which had troubled him, including all the physical  persecutions he had suffered, he named the anxiety which was in his heart  for the churches and his brethren. 2 Corinthians 11:28.

 

Those who wound or  hurt the church, likewise wound the body of Jesus, as did the soldiers who  put him to death. The man of the world who hurls a charge at the church will  be dealt with by the Lord in his own good way and time. Let him not think  that he can insult the children in God’s family, and not have to  answer to their father. The body of Christ has the Lord as its head, and if  it is narrow-minded as some have charged, it is because He is its  mind.

 

But the men of the  world, with their slurs, will not hurt the church so much as the  unconcerned, indifferent, and lukewarm members. False teachers of the world  can never deceive and lead astray as well as a, false teacher  within. A wolf, clothed as a sheep, slips into the midst of the flock, and  with the favor of the sheep toward him, then destroys it.

 

This is why the  members of the church should be anxious and jealously concerned about its  welfare. Why, every man and woman in it should be measured, not by what they  have, not by their place in the world, not by their formal education, but by  their faithfulness to truth and righteousness.

 

Any member of the  church should be so anxious to preserve the welfare of the Lord’s family,  that he would diligently study the scriptures to see that all practice and  teaching in the church was in harmony with the  truth.

 

No member really has  the care for the church that he should have, who is willing to  forsake it’s assemblies at any time. He does not care for the  church, who shuts his ear against the warnings that come to the church about sin, error, false teachings or sinful practices in the lives of  its members. He does not care for the church, who will not  confess his sins and repent of a way that has injured God’s family. He who  encourages another in his wrong doings, and does not stop to point out his  folly, does not care for the church.

 

Let us anxiously  strive to keep the record of the church pure from within and without; from  ourselves and others.

 

- Dudley Ross Spears  - Gospel Guide, 10th and Bell Church,  Shawnee.