Why we Need the Church

It is no secret we live in a self-oriented and self-justified society. We are the masters of our own destiny, or so we think. I hear it all the time. “I don’t need anyone to tell me what the Bible means.” This very phrase is totally without meaning. If you are reading the letters of Saint Paul, then you need someone to tell you what the Bible means.

If we were able to interpret the Scriptures without guidance, then Saint Paul would have had no reason to write his epistles. If we were the masters of our own destiny, there would be no churches, no bibles, and no religion. There are all these things, so stop being foolish.

Brethren, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,” God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit. The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men? For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely men? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor.

1^st Corinthians 2:9-16;3:1-8

Does this sound like a Church that is master of their own destiny? Clearly not. Remember, the Corinthians were Christians. They were believers, yet Saint Paul needed to guide them. We need the Church exactly because we are self-oriented and self-justified people. We can’t understand God without His help.

His help comes through His Holy Spirit, “who will guide into all the truth,” (John 16.13) to the Church. When Christ called Saul to ministry, he was sent to the Church to receive his credentials. He even had to alter some of his teachings because everyone must conform to the Holy Spirit.

Stop reading the Bible like you are the master of your own destiny. Start reading the Bible as a guide to understanding the role of the Church. The Holy Spirit guided the Holy Apostles into all the truth. The Holy Apostles established the Church and sent out teachers and evangelists to guide the people into all the truth. If you want the truth, come to the Church.