“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

—1 Corinthians 3:16-23

When I say the word church, I think I’ll get many different responses from you. For some of you, it might stir up memories of Sunday School and having a nice time with your friends; for some church might be a necessary but tiring burden every Sunday morning; for others it might be something negative, something that has caused a lot of pain in the past, and even today; and for others maybe at least it’ll make you think of the Renaissance and Martin Luther.

One Indian philosopher called Bara Dada was not so enthusiastic about the Church; he said “Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but Christians are not like him.” Most people would probably agree that there are a lot of serious problems with the Church, this community of Christians, these people who say they follow Jesus but often do the exact opposite of what Jesus did.

Continue reading “on the preciousness of the Church” →