1 Timothy 3.15 - The Main Thing about Church

1 Timothy 3.15 – The Main Thing about Church

Churches do many good things for people.  Church people often make good friends. A church can be a great place to meet your future spouse. There are many needs met by churches. There are programs for youth and families.  Churches are often good places for music lovers. Churches provide seminars on finances, coping with loss, overcoming addictions, how to learn a foreign language, and other helpful topics. These are great ways to serve the community. All these good activities, and many others, are ways a church can show God’s love for the world. But non-church people can do all these things also, and sometimes they do a better job of them.
The unique thing a church has, which the world does not have, is the Word of our God.  Indeed, the church exists for God – it lives because He does. It is His embassy in this world. Here lost people can come and find Him. All of our meetings, programs, and events should introduce people to Him. Unfortunately, sometimes our church events only entertain believers. The one thing a church does that non-church people cannot do is share the Word of God. The Apostle Paul makes this point in three verses of Scripture. He calls the church, “God’s household, the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3.15). “His [God’s] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known” (Ephesians 3.10). And to the Philippian believers he wrote, “You shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life” (Philippians 2.15,16). Martin Luther said, “The Church is God’s mouth-house.” So the Church of Jesus is founded on the Word, grows by the Word, and must make the Word known.