#projectC61920 Day 9: Social Exercise

#projectC61920 Day 9: Social Exercise

God created us to be social creatures. You may think you’re content to live along in the mountains with nothing but you, God and the pine trees, but no man is an island. I understand the desire for periodic (or even frequent) solitude. It can do your mind a whole lot of good to limit the social and technological stimulation from time to time. But ultimately, we are going to have to interact with people. God commanded man to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth (Genesis 1:22). The two greatest commandments in all of Scripture even deal with relationships and social behaviors and attitudes (Mark 12:28-31)!

Something I hear from too many Christians today is that they would go to church except their last pastor said something they didn’t like. Someone was mean to them. They didn’t like that the church they attended got into debt (an issue I struggled with for a long time). Someone sat in “their” pew. 

The music was too loud/inconsistent. These are all valid reasons to be irritated. They are not, however, acceptable reasons to give up on the Church. I use two different styles of referencing “the church” when I write.

The “Church” refers to the Bride of Christ, the sanctified Body of believers across time and globe.

The “church” refers to the local community gathering that a Christian attends with regularity.

As I stated, the Church is the Bride of Christ. By refusing to be a part of the local body, you are, by extension, refusing the Bride herself. Now, I know a lot of wives in the world that are, shall we say, less than stellar. I’ve known plenty of wives (and husbands for the record) that infuriate me with how they treat their husbands and other people in general. But I don’t go around insulting other men’s wives—and with good reason. It’s rude and puts me at risk of getting a well-earned punch. How much more do think Christ feels about those who treat and speak of His bride this way. And we all know that the Church has had more than a few blemishes on its record, but Paul reminds us that Christ has a plan for the Church (eph 5:25-26), so we need not worry about trying to even the scales in this life.

The crux is simply this: As Christians, we should go to church because we are commanded to (Heb. 1-:25, Col. 3:16). Additionally, the church is a great place to socialize in a safe place where Christ is revered. If your local church isn’t anything like that, consider visiting a new church. Just like if a school isn’t working out for your child, you often have the opportunity to move them to a better one. As a good friend of mine said, “If you live in the Bible Belt [the South] and you don’t get saved, it’s absolutely your own dang fault because there’s a church on every street corner!”

If you didn’t like your co-workers where you worked, would you throw up your hands and never work another day in your life? Probably not. You’d just find a new or different place to work. The same is true for the schools we put our kids in, so why not the same for church?

If you have children, chances are they’re going to learn social skills quickest from people their age. This is why Christ instituted church, so that Christians could have a community, not just a 3+ person family unit, to learn the Word as well as good social behaviors and norms.

I am grateful that I was raised in a home where church was a major element of our lives. The best friends I’ve ever had in my life, I met in church. I heard the gospel in church. I was baptized and discipled in church. I am who I am because of Christ and His work, largely done in and through people and ministries found at my local church.

Don’t forsake His Bride!

#walkwithme