I Love the Church Because It is God’s Community of Love
God created people to live in love and fellowship with one another. This was His original plan in the garden of Eden. He said about Adam, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18). Marriage was the immediate application of this pronouncement, but the church was the ultimate goal and purpose that God had in mind (Ephesians 3:11, 5:32). God wanted a community of love to exist in which He Himself would participate. He created that initially, but Satan spoiled it when man sinned. The story of the Bible is God’s work in rebuilding that community through His sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has finished the work that He began and created the new Eden. The church is the fellowship of humanity and God in one body, Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:16-22).
The community of love is exclusive. God does not extend fellowship beyond His body, the church. This is where He dwells with His people today. That is the point of Ephesians 2:21-22. “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” God lives in and with His people, the church, the body for which Christ died and shed His blood, and He will not dwell in any other. Jesus Christ is His habitation (John 1:14) and His bride is the body of Christ (Ephesians 5:23). This makes the church God’s unique and only dwelling place. It is God’s community of love.
As a human, I have a need to love and be loved. My need extends to God and other people. Given that the church is the unique community of love in which God dwells, I need to love and participate in the church. Moreover, I need to love God and have a relationship with Him by Jesus Christ. The church is where God fulfills these needs that He created. When I choose to love God and His people, my need to love and be loved is satisfied and God’s purposes are fulfilled in me, and God achieves atonement. There is no other place where this unique mix of love, community, fellowship, and unity with God and His people exist.