So WHO is Your First Love? Your God or Your Church?

Please bear with me as I share my confusion. What is happening? I know church is a divine institution with Christ as its head and we are the body. So, I am definitely a church going Christian but for crying out loud - we are called to a relationship with God and not with the church. Why are we going about establishing friendships with the church of God instead? Friendship with the church is at best, friendship with self and can only breed selfishness.

Like the Israelites when Moses took too long in coming down from meeting God on the mountain, we have set up different gods for ourselves since Christ is taking too long to return. Gold with which God blessed the people became the calf which they worshipped just like the church which God instituted for a blessing has, for various selfish reasons, become our ‘golden calf’.

I worship at MercyPlace Parish of RCCG, Lagos, Nigeria. So, I am planted in a church. More often than not, I look forward to going to church with a lot of enthusiasm. The mercy of God is abundant toward us in the church. I love the church and the congregation though I know some people must be learning to love me. I am not always the best of people you know but I am working at it and I can assure you that I’m getting better everyday. However, what is most important to me is my relationship with God.

Colossians 1: 20-21 NLT- ‘and through Him God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and earth by means of Christ blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault.’

God sent Jesus to die for our sins that we may be reconciled to Him and not to the church. In saving our souls, He not only reconciles us to Himself but also grants us access to His very presence and person. True love for and a desire to fellowship with other Christians is derived from a relationship with Him. The stronger our love for Him, the more we love to fellowship. The wonderful thing is that as we gather unto Him, He is there in our midst. So that when you can’t reach Him on your own, the fire that comes from fellowshipping helps to rekindle your own fire and then your relationship comes alive again.

Our relationship is with the God of the church, Christ the head of the church but is Christ still our focus or has church unknowingly become the God of our lives? Please take a deep breathe and be sincere as you answer these questions. Who is your relationship with - Is it the God of the church or the church of God? When you have a need, to whom do you cry out – the pastor, other Christians, the institution itself or the God that is able to through any medium he chooses, meet your need. As pastors, are we like Aaron helping to build the golden calf instead of pointing the people to God?

It is time to reassess our relationship with God and make required corrections where necessary. There is only one God and we are to love Him with all our being and all that we have and will ever be or have. Please share your thoughts in the blog by clicking comments under this article.