Nice picture of a church in Cavtat, Croatia, don’t you think? But, does a nice location make for a perfect church? In last week’s blog, we took a look at a few of the problems which Paul dealt with in the churches he had influence in. We were able to see how Paul didn’t cast people aside who were imperfect in their walk with Christ. In Today’s post, we follow up on this thought about imperfections by looking at the subject ‘Why There Is No Such Thing as a Perfect Church.’

[Tweet “There will never be a perfect church on planet earth, that is until Jesus comes back.”]

The Main Reason Why There Will Never Be A Perfect Church

• There will never be a perfect church on planet earth, that is until Jesus comes back.
• There is no perfect church because that would require perfect people.
• Think of it this way.
• The church became imperfect as soon as we joined it.
• It certainly did the day I did.
• But, knowing this doesn’t seem to stop people from demanding perfection.

The Perfect Pastor

• One unknown author penned the following words on what a perfect pastor looks like.
  • The perfect pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes.
  • He condemns sin roundly but never hurts anyone’s feelings.
  • He works from 8 AM until midnight and is also the church janitor.
  • The perfect pastor makes $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $30 a week to the church.
  • He is 29 years old and has 40 years experience.
  • Above all, he is handsome.
  • The perfect pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and he spends most of his time with the senior citizens.
  • He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his church.
  • He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in his office to be handy when needed.
  • The perfect pastor always has time for church council and all of its committees.
  • He never misses the meeting of any church organization and is always busy evangelizing the unchurched.
  • The perfect pastor is always in the next church over!
  • If your pastor does not measure up, simply send this notice to six other churches that are tired of their pastor, too.
  • Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of the list.
  • If everyone cooperates, in one week you will receive 1,643 pastors.
  • One of them should be perfect! ¹

Your Description of Perfection?

• What if someone was to write a description of what the perfect church member looked like?
• I mean a real list, not like the funny one we just read about pastors.
• What kind of issues do you think would be or should be covered in such a description?
• It would surely look contain some of the issues Paul discussed in his own letters to the churches where he dealt with so many problems and problem people.
• After all if writing a perfect description for a perfect person there should be no problems, right?

The Issue of Following False Prophets and Teachers

• In several of the Epistles in the New Testament, Paul addresses the problem of false teachers and false doctrine.
• You will find Paul’s comments to the Galatians about false prophets and teachers to be especially stern.

Galatians 5:12 (NKJV) — 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!

• The phrase ‘would even cut themselves off’ is one word in the Greek and it means to emasculate or to castrate oneself.
• Wow, this is pretty shocking don’t you think?
• Paul says that his desire is that the false teachers of Galatia would castrate themselves.
• Why such strong language from the writer of the famous love chapter of First Corinthians thirteen?

A Commentators Remarks on Galatians 5:12

• D. A. Hayes remarks on this passage,

There is something of ‘grim ferocity’ about this language. There is nothing delicate in it. It is offensive to white-fingered and white-cheeked and white-livered people who sit in their easy-chairs and read these burning words today. They blush when they read them (Ga 1:8, 9), and they blush more when they read that passage farther on in the Epistle to the Galatians in which Paul says: ‘I wish that those who unsettled you on the subject of circumcision would go off and castrate themselves! Possibly in that way they would lose all further interest in the subject.’ They think that such language ought not to be used in the presence of ladies. Paul was not thinking about the ladies when he dictated those words. He was hot with anger against the Judaizers who were making trouble for him through all the Gentile field. He had to say something which would stop it; and he did. His righteous anger brought about a righteous result” ²

• Perhaps Paul was thinking of the worship of Cybele, a Greek carryover little ‘g’ god whom the Romans had adopted. ³
• Cybele was the mistress of wild nature.
• And since the 1st century was an agricultural society, this cult had a tremendous appeal to the average Roman citizen. ⁴
• The priests who served in the cult of Cybele were all eunuchs.
• Perhaps the resulting physical impotence pictured Paul’s desire that they also be unable to produce new converts. ⁵
• Paul’s strong words are to convey to the Galatians his strong desire to see that false doctrine is not reproduced in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Yet, despite the blunders of the Galatians, Paul still refers to the Galatian believers as brothers in Christ.
• If Paul exhibits this level of patience, shouldn’t we?

Problems, Problems, Problems

• The Galatians weren’t the only bunch who had problems.

The Romans

• In his letter to the Romans, Paul addressed the problems of believers with weak consciences in the areas of vegetarianism and meat’s offered to idols.

The Corinthians

• In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul addressed an entirely different set of problems.
• The Corinthians were in strife and division over which church leaders should be followed.
• In fact, they were getting downright ugly about the issue.
• Couple that with sexual immoralities, and a case of incest; mix that with church members suing one another; confusion about the use of spiritual gifts; pigging out over the Lord’s Table, stir all that up together and you have a tee-total mess on your hand.

The Colossians

• The Colossians weren’t the perfect church either.
• In his letter to them, Paul addressed the subject of angel worship and severe asceticism.
• They were beating themselves up with fasting and a severely limiting lifestyle thinking that by so doing they would achieve a greater spirituality.

Paul’s Reaction

• Yet in every one of these ‘problem’ cases, Paul acts as just another member of the family.
  • Paul doesn’t cast out these believers aside because of their problems.
  • He doesn’t give up on them because they have issues.
  • Nor does he throw up his hands in disgust and walk off from them.
  • He bites his tongue and refuses to say, “You make me so mad, I’m not talking to any of you.”
  • He resists the temptation to use reverse psychology to motivate them.
  • And, he doesn’t pile on guilt so that they would be shamed into right conduct.
• Instead, Paul tries to keep open lines of communication.
• That’s how it should be.
• None of us are perfect in our knowledge of God.
• And none of us are perfect in walking out the knowledge that we do have.
• We are all growing in God.
• All believers are at different stages of development.
• Everyone is in the process of becoming.
• So take heart dear one.
• Because after all, when all the dust settles and we look at the facts as they really are, we must conclude that there are no perfect people.
• And consequently, since there isn’t, there is no such thing as a perfect church.

Call to Action:

You know sometimes when we take ourselves to the proverbial mirror, we don’t always enjoy what we see. We see problems and shortcomings. We look at our ministers and think they are all just perfect. Boy, do I have news for you. No one is perfect not even our leaders. The only perfect one is Jesus. And since that’s true, the very best you can do is to raise up both your hands and say, ‘Thank God for His mercy endures forever.’

Question: How do you respond to the imperfections you see in yourself? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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