Jesus is easy to love. He created us (John 1:3), came to earth to save us (Luke 19:10), lived a perfect life of service (1 Peter 2:21–22), and died for us (Mark 10:45). Jesus’ work started before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:20) and continues to this moment (Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1). We love Jesus because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Jesus is easy to love, but what about the church? Can we choose to love Jesus, but reject the church?
As Jesus prepared to ascend into heaven, His disciples had questions (Acts 1:6) and gazed up after Him (Acts 1:10). In addition to their question about the kingdom (Acts 1:6), did they wonder what to do without Jesus? What was next?
Jesus’ answer came in Acts 2 with the birth of the church. If the church was man’s idea, we could take it or leave it. Since the church was God’s idea (Isaiah 2; Daniel 2; Joel 2; Acts 2), we must take it. Jesus loved us as individuals so much that He gave His life for us (John 3:16), but He also gave His life for the larger group, His body, the church (Ephesians 5:25).
The concept of church should not surprise us. The Old Testament is full of divine teachings on the idea of practicing our faith with others.
“It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment” (Proverbs 18:1). “God sets the solitary in families” (Psalm 68:6). “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor” (Ecclesiastes 4:9). “But He made His own people go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock” (Psalm 78:52). The Israelites were called a “congregation in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38).
In the New Testament, Christians are members of God’s household. God’s house, the church, stands on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus is the chief cornerstone. Church members are joined together (Ephesians 2:19–22). Union with Jesus includes union with the apostles and prophets of the past and fellow Christians in the present.
Jesus is the head of the church, which is His body (Colossians 1:18). Jesus, the head, saves the body (Ephesians 5:23). A Christian cannot accept the head and reject the body. The church is so important that Jesus adds us to it when we are saved (Acts 2:47). God’s eternal plan was for Christians to be joined to Jesus and to each other. There is no relationship with Jesus without a relationship with His church. To love Jesus, we must also love His church.
