What The Church Must Be, Round 3

With regard to what the church must be…the main idea is this: The church must be a holy, united and loving community committed to God and what matters to Him. The church must be committed to things that are near to the heart of God. Let’s take a look at the characteristics of the church as a community: holiness, unity and love. Mark Dever in his book "The Message of the New Testament" makes this point. These are three things that are some of the toughest things to pull off.

The Church must be Holy – 1 Cor. 1:2 Paul greets the church as those who are “called to be holy”. The church is to be holy because God is holy.

The Church must also be United – 1 Cor. 1:10-12. The church is to be united because God is unified, He is One. 1 Cor. 8:6.

The Church must also be Loving – 1 Cor. 8:1 knowledge makes arrogant but love edifies. The church is to be loving because God is love.

The church is to show the character of God to the world. The church is the living extension of God to the world. You cannot simply follow Jesus apart from being a part of a local assembly.