WHAT IS THE CHURCH WORTH?

Musick-al Note # 260
We all know the value our Lord placed on the church. “He purchased it with His own blood.” All the anguish that filled His heart when He was betrayed and denied by friends, and all the pain that cruel minds made Him suffer is involved in this statement. The bitter hours of agony that began when the nails were driven into His body is part of His estimate of the value of the church.
We talk a lot about what the church is worth, but I wonder how much of this is just talk and how much of it we really mean. Is the church worth some effort on your part to see it grow? After all, growth of the church depends upon the efforts of those who are a part of it. What it will accomplish here on earth is in our hands. Is the church worth our efforts to keep it united? The Lord never divided the church. It was one when He bought it and it was His desire that it remain one. We are taught to “speak the same things and there should be no divisions among us (1 Corinthians 1:10). The unity and happiness of the church will be determined by our actions. The Bible says that God hates those who sow discord among brethren. Is it worth your efforts to keep it in unity?
Is the church worth more than our personal feelings? Churches have often been destroyed by people who talked loudest about their great love for it. Sometimes people want something for the church, or want the church to do something that others do not consider best. Rather than to follow the advice of another it is very often we insist on doing things our way, gathering a group around us, and destroying what could be a good work, all the time professing our great love for the church. We are prone to act on the basis that, “If I don’t like something, my friends can’t like it either.” Thus we organize a group and work to destroy that work. Naturally we are “doing it for the good of the church.” It is never our intention to destroy the work of Christ, but when we take-over to stop or the start a work in spite of what others think, we destroy the unity and effectiveness of the Lord’s church. In so doing we may even divide the church, a grave sin indeed.
If the church is worth enough for Jesus to die for it, is its worth to us should be great enough for us to live for it. Certainly, things that are eternal are more valuable than personal considerations. The church is worth more than having my own way or getting “even” with someone I do not like. The church is worth more than expounding my own hobby. Whatever satisfaction I may receive from having my own way here will last but a short while, but the church is eternal. It is the body of Christ and is never to be divided.
Gordon Musick