Two Underlying Causes of The Weakened Church
I to start by asking this question. Is the church of Jesus Christ relevant for today? The biblical answer must be yes because Jesus Christ stated that He will build His church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Yet churches are closing and declining at an alarming rate. So what is the problem? Why isn’t the cwant hurch of Jesus Christ more visible? Why doesn’t the church of Jesus Christ have more influence on our culture than it has. Jesus Christ stated that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. So what is the problem? This writer cites the two underlying causes of the weak testimony and influences of our churches. We find both issues in Jesus’ words in John 14:15. He said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. The two underlying causes are our love for Jesus and our willingness to keep His commandments. The violation or compromise of these two underlying causes date way back from when Christians first came to America through today. Churches who didn’t love Jesus enough to keep His commandments and not keeping His commandments by compromising with the culture have a far-reaching effect on diminishing the power and influence of the church. Our love for Jesus and keeping His word should always drive what we do. According to Jesus, if we truly love Him the way that He wants to be loved, all of life and all decisions must be guided by adherence to His word. For any local church to be effective, the people must have a love for Jesus that causes them to demonstrate that love by strictly adhering to His word. How do these two things, love for Jesus and keeping His commandments affect the influence of our churches? James explains that in very clear terms. In James 4:4, he states, You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Once we compromise any portion of God’s word to get along with the world, God becomes the church’s problem. In many of our churches we want to reach the people. We want our churches to grow. In our effort to reach people we acquiesce to the culture in various ways. For example, in early America churches did not oppose slavery and did not speak up for their black brothers and sisters, nor for the equity of humanity as explained in the scriptures. God’s word should have been the guide for the acts of the churches. There should never have been legal or practiced segregation in the churches at that time or in our time. I agree that there were some Christians who spoke out but the church as a whole did not. Why? It tried to please the culture over keeping the commandments of Jesus. Today many churches, black and white are trying to please our culture as opposed to demonstrating our love for Jesus. Jesus stated if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. Many of our churches are far more political than biblical. Many of our churches are far more racial than righteous. Many of our preachers and parishioners trust more in government than we do our Lord and savior. Too many of our Christian brothers and sisters care more about what the culture thinks of them than what Jesus has to say about them. The one thing that affirms our relevancy and our importance to our communities is our adherence to Jesus and His word. It is our adherence to His word that provides a light for others to see. Our commitment to Jesus provides stability for the unstable, the unsaved, and those who have lost their way. How can any of us expect the Spirit of the living God to work in us and through us when we’ve compromised many of our biblical values trying to get the world to like us and want to be with us? Recall these words in Matt 22:35-38. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. How can we love Jesus in this way and compromise in so many ways. God’s word is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Earth and heaven will pass away but His word will never Pass away. God’s word is as eternal and contemporary as He is. So if you ask why isn’t our influence as the salt of the earth should be, it is because we’ve allowed our salt to become contaminated. Therefore, it’s only worth to be trampled on as the culture is doing. Why aren’t we the light that Jesus said He made us to be? When we acquiesce to the cry of the culture instead of holding fast to the commandments of Christ we place a bushel over our light. Therefore, people in the culture who are in darkness can’t see the light that should be shining in us.
Our strength and effectiveness are outgrowths, fruit of us loving Jesus and holding fast to His word under all circumstances. My prayer is that we would repent of our compromises and adhere tightly to God’s word so that Jesus can see and experience our love for Him.
Rev. Lawrence Robinson
