The Church’s Greatest Flaw

In my study of the New Testament, I find men who wrote about the greatest and most serious issue facing humankind. They wrote with great diligence to display their thoughts about this problem and the only means to overcome it. Interestingly it had nothing to do with immortality, poverty, slavery, or global warming. The problem understood to be the greatest is still the same today. Yet the church has over looked it in its attempt to reform society. What is the great problem that plagued the world so much that it required God to inspire twenty-seven letters in the first century?

Sin. The entire New and Old Testament is dedicated to the means by which God would deal with this issue of sin. The Old Testament points toward God’s promise to reconcile His people to Him and the New Testament shows the means it took to accomplish this. As much as the Scripture points to Christ, it also points to our sin. Some would say this takes the importance off Christ. However, that is not the true. If anything, it disciplines our focus on Jesus. If it had not been for sin, God’s Christ would never have come to this place to suffer from our disobedience.

Why is it that Jesus, God in flesh, did not try to reform Roman rule? Why did He not even redeem His people, Israel, from Rome and establish His earthly kingdom? Everyone wanted it. It was not His purpose. Then He commissioned His Apostles to preach the truth, giving them signs to confirm their message. Oddly, neither in the Acts of the Apostles, nor in the letters they penned was social reform mentioned. Why did these men, of great power, not try to change the culture through political means?

The church’s greatest flaw has been its political agenda of morality. The church has diligently attacked or supported homosexuality, capital punishment, war, slavery, and other moral issues. Yet the New Testament never prescribes such an action. The Apostles and local churches were a very small minority in the Roman Empire. Even with the sign gifts given to the Apostles, they did not have much influence outside of the church. Some say this is the reason they did not reform society. Scripture is in disagreement with that. Even in the local churches, social reform was not an issue. The issue at hand was the sin of the believers and Christ’s redemptive work. It was though Jesus that men and women were able to life faithfully, morality was never the issue.

Did not Jesus and the Apostles establish social reform among the believers? Yes and it is in the two commandments: love God and people. It is wrong to force this on a society of non-believers who can never live up to it. It is because of God that we are able to love.

Look at some social issues during the time of Christ and the Apostles and see how they dealt with them. Jewish legalism was a major threat to the people of God. Jesus spoke boldly against the legalism of the Pharisees and scribes and proclaimed that one would have to be more righteous then these to see the kingdom of heaven. Jesus’ call for people to turn away from their self-righteousness was done on a private, individual, level. He taught though parables so that peoples’ eyes could be opened to the truth.

Sexual immorality was horrible in first century Rome. Fornication, homosexuality, and prostitution were common and not seen as wrong by the normal citizen. Imagine if Paul would have gone to Caesar and suggested that social reform needed instituted. Not only was homosexuality common, but it was a respected way to satisfy elders as young boys gratified these passions. Prostitution was not only like we have in modern society, but also it was a part of many Roman religious ceremonies. Temple priestesses were prostitutes and orgies were a form of worship to the gods. Paul, as Apostle to the gentiles, had to deal with this in gentile churches. He commanded them to no follow in the lustful passions of the pagans, but he did not tell them to hinder those outside the fellowship from committing immorality.

Slavery has been a major issue for the American church because of our past, which resulted in a civil war. Many have claimed that Scripture forbade slavery, but a closer look shows differently. In Old Testament Israel, a man who had slaves was required to release them on year of Jubilee, but a slave had the right to remain with his master under his own will. Rome was different. Israel’s slavery resulted from a debt owed or one would surrender himself as a slave to preserve his life. Roman slaves were mostly captives of war. As Rome spread, more and more became slaves. Evidence shows that fifty percent of Rome was slaves. Why did the New Testament writers not attack slavery? It was not an issue to them. The New Testament never tries to reform the social classes between master and slave; rather it reformed the relationship between them. Slaves should be obedient and masters should be just. Paul never calls for freedom of slaves. Not even among brethren.

The church is not God’s means of political reform. The church is to proclaim the message of man’s sin and Jesus’ redemptive work. That is the good news. In recent years, the church has made valiant efforts to save the morality of America, but all it has done is alienate us from our world. Individuals can do as they feel let to do, but it is not a ministry of the church. The society we are trying to save through morality knows that conservative Christians think homosexuality is an abomination, that capital punishment is good, the war in Iraq is just, and abortion is murder; but what good is that? In our attempt to save America from immorality, we have turned them over to sin with no escape. Morality proclaimed, Jesus forgotten…that is the Church’s Greatest Flaw.