Guest Post: The Church: Broken, Sinful, Hypocritical, and Yet Blameless

Note: Enjoy this guest post by Jacob Ward!

The Broken Church

“The church is filled with hypocrites! Organized religion is corrupt!” These words are common, not just from unbelievers, but even those who say they value the Word of God. As we look at the state of the churches around us, it’s hard not to agree with these ideas.

This story has been lived out by thousands. A child grows up in his local church where the love of God was never taught. God seemed like an absent father.  After growing up, he learns that his pastor had an affair with the church secretary. He decides to move on to the next church hoping for something to be different this time. 

He decides to visit a new church where there are people his age. He goes with high hopes of finding real community and belonging. The church has hundreds of programs and yet he feels like a number. He knows if he leaves church, nobody will know that he left. What he thought he needed was to find a small church. He wanted a place where everyone could know him. But when he shows up, the people just stare. He can hear them saying, “why is someone like him attending our church?” He begins to wonder why the church is full of legalists and hypocrites.  

Have your or someone you know experienced the brokenness of the church? Perhaps you have never known the beauty of a gospel-centered culture. Instead you find hypocrisy, judgement, and pain. Is every church this broken? You attend church for the words of eternal life, and you find death.

The Church has Sinned

Dear Christian, I want you to know that you have experienced real pain as the result of sin committed by the church. The story described above might not be your unique story, but Christians all over the world have found brokenness in their own churches that offered them the words of eternal life. Many came knowing their sinfulness and need of Christ and rather than finding hope and acceptance in the gospel, they were rejected by those who claimed to represent Christ.  

If you have been wrongly rejected by the church, know that you are not alone. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day, the Pharisees, attempted to keep sinners away from Jesus. These religious leaders hated Jesus and accused him of many false things.  However, they had at least one accusation that was true about Jesus. Luke 15:1-2 tells us, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them’”. 

What amazing comfort can be found in that accusation? You may feel unclean or defiled. You may feel like you do not belong. You might feel that you are damaged goods. You may feel that you are too sinful for church, but there is good news for you. Remember: Christ receives sinners. He does love you! He does want you to come to Him in faith. But how can you know this to be true? 

Jesus seeks after His lost sheep. After being accused of receiving sinners, Jesus tells a powerful parable in Luke 15:3-7. Jesus said, “‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Know this, that if you feel like the church has given up on you, Christ never will. If you return to Christ, He will not reject you! All of heaven rejoices when a sinner comes home. Heed the call of Zecheriah 1:3 – “Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you.” 

Will you come back to your savior, this day? And if you do come, will you truly belong? Consider the story of the prodigal son. He left his father while demanding his inheritance. He lived a lifestyle of lavish sin, and it led him into the slums. 

This prodigal was hopeless and in dire need, so he came up with a solution to his predicament. He decided that he would return to the father not as a son but as a hired servant saying, “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’” 

 Have you ever felt this way? Have you thought that God will not accept you back as His child? Do you think you have out sinned God’s grace, so that if you were to return, you would have to earn his blessing back? Remember what the Father does. He sees him with a heart full of great compassion and runs to his son. The father gives him his best robe and declared that his return will be marked with celebration over his return exclaiming, “And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to celebrate.” 

The church might have shown you that God will never accept you. But you need to know that your Heavenly Father loves you. Why would you not return to God? He is your greatest need and want. He is what you have been seeking after. 

A life away from Christ brings death. A church that has forgotten Christ is poison. But Christ is gentle and lowly at heart. He is what you have been looking for. Come to Him and find acceptance. All of heaven will rejoice today if you return to your savior. 

Church the Elder Brother 

Yet, what about the church? What about the one who wrongly said that you did not belong with the Father? There is another brother in the story of the prodigal son. Do you remember the elder brother? He was the one who stayed with the father. On the day of his brother’s return, after working in the field, he came near the house. At his arrival, he heard music and dancing. Once he found out his brother was being celebrated with the fattened calf, he became angry and refused to celebrate. The brother thought he was owed a celebration for what he has done for the father, in contrast with his sinful brother, who had devoured the father’s property.

How do you think the father should respond? Do you think that he should disown Him? We are quick to become angry at the elder brother because we are so prone to forget the grace that we have been shown. The father kindly responded, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” The father’s response defends the acceptance of the prodigal but also beckons the elder brother to remember who he has. He has the father and all that the father has. So why would he not rejoice at his brother’s return?  

Without the gospel being preached, believed and lived out in community, churches will forget the grace that they have been shown. A church that has forgotten the gospel will then start to become graceless to the tax collectors and sinners of our day. They will focus on how they have served their Father and develop a sense of self-righteousness. However, the gospel of Jesus Christ preached in the church by the power of the Holy Spirit will change the most self-righteous of Christians. Remembering the beauty of the gospel will cause us to rejoice with the Father and all of heaven when sinners return home. Remembering the beauty of the gospel will keep us from standing off to the side grumbling like the elder brother. This is why the church needs to be reminded daily of the glory of grace that we have been shown. The Church needs to be reminded of Christ, the great purifier of the church. 

Christ the Purifier of the Church

Christian, you may have every earthly reason to hate the church. You have heard all the lines. You have heard that it isn’t about religion, it’s a relationship. You have heard that you cannot love Christ and hate his bride. You have been told that you need to learn to forgive the church as you have been forgiven. There is truth to many of these statements, but what you must hold onto is who Christ is and what He is doing. Jude 1:24-25 describes Christ’s work as, “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” 

Just as Christ will present you blameless before the presence of the glory, He will do that same work in the church. 

You can have every earthly reason to doubt whether you should belong to the church, but there is one heavenly reason to have lasting hope in her. Christ will sanctify the church that He loves and for which He gave Himself up. Remember the words of Ephesians 5:25-27, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” 

Christian, do you believe this is true? Christ gave Himself up for the church. He will complete this work. Therefore, you can believe that the church will be made blameless; you can press into the local church. You have been gifted by the Holy Spirit with spiritual gifts for the good of the church (1 Corinthians 12:7). You need the church, but the church also needs you. The Spirit of Christ has gifted you with gifts for the good of His bride. Will you be a part of the church family? 

Gospel doctrine creates gospel culture because Christ is the one who creates the culture. He will be glorified through the church. He will be the one who presents the church and the church alone as blameless. Seek to be a part of a church that preaches the gospel, and you can trust Christ will keep His word to create a gospel culture worth belonging too.

Jacob Ward is a member of Liberty Baptist Church in Liberty, Missouri. He is married to Jessica and is an excited expectant father. Jacob has a Master’s Degree in Accounting from the University of Missouri – Kansas City and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Jacob currently works as a technology risk consultant and is engaged in ministry in his local church.

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