What Makes a True Christian Love the Church?

By Dennis R. Smith

Perhaps first of all we need to identify the term “true Christian.”  This means that it is a man or woman who totally and completely believes every word in the bible has come by the inspiration of  God and that it is the one and only thing which is able to completely furnish them “unto every good work” (2^nd Tim. 3:16-17).  It is their conception that when the bible speaks and issues a command, it is as though God himself had spoken to them.  Furthermore, they respond in complete obedience without ever questioning the wisdom of God.  When this type of faith is exemplified in any man or woman,  they grow in the grace and knowledge of God with the strongest of confidence in all areas of the love of God (2^nd Peter 3:18). With this in mind, I will now answer the question asked in the title of this article.  A true Christian loves the church because it belongs to Christ (Matt. 16:18);  that Christ purchased it with his own blood (Acts 20:28); that  the saved are added to it (Acts 2:47); there is an unmatched  fellowship in it (Phil. 1:5); our lives are more richly blessed here by being in it (1^st Tim. 4:8); AND FINALLY, by being faithful to it we will be rewarded with “a crown of life” (Rev. 2:10),  plus “everlasting life” (John 3:16)  with the creator of all things (John 1:3) when this life is over.  What else and who else  offers us more than this?