No, It’s Not a Perfect Church
Matthew 13:24-25,28-29 Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like a man who planted good seed in his field. That night, while everyone was asleep, the man’s enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat and then left. … “The man answered, ‘An enemy planted weeds.’ “The servants asked, ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ “He answered, ‘No, because when you pull up the weeds, you might also pull up the wheat. Let the weeds and the wheat grow together until the harvest time. At the harvest time I will tell the workers this: First, gather the weeds and tie them together to be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it to my barn.’”
What is it with those people in your local church who want to play politics? Who seem to be grumpy all the time, or rude or selfish? What the blazes are they doing there and when is someone going to sort them out or get rid of them? Well?
I remember years ago when I went looking for a church to belong to. I knew that there was no such thing as the perfect church, but guess what I was looking for. Yep – the perfect church – the place where they only sang songs I liked, the place where the “minister” was a crack preacher and a brilliant pastor, close to home, air-conditioned, soft seats (not those hard old wooden pews) and not too many noisy, screaming kids (too old for that!).
But I never found one. In fact, quite the opposite. Pretty much every church had some people you wouldn’t want to invite home. And of course, our natural reaction is to get in there and sort them out. But that’s not the Jesus plan. In fact, it never was.
Matthew 13:24-25,28-29 Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like a man who planted good seed in his field. That night, while everyone was asleep, the man’s enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat and then left. … “The man answered, ‘An enemy planted weeds.’ “The servants asked, ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ “He answered, ‘No, because when you pull up the weeds, you might also pull up the wheat. Let the weeds and the wheat grow together until the harvest time. At the harvest time I will tell the workers this: First, gather the weeds and tie them together to be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it to my barn.’”
There you have it. Church: wheat, weeds and all.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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