Why Does the Church Exist on Earth?

“When I go in that church and see all the hypocrites in there, it just makes my blood boil.”

“Why should I go to church and sit there with those sinners?”

“I’ll never go to that church, knowing what that woman did to my mother 30 years ago.”

It’s a common sentiment, isn’t it? I hear it almost weekly when I talk with folks about coming to worship: too many hypocrites in the church.

Behind that attitude lies a twofold misunderstanding of the church: what its membership standards are, and who it exists for.

Some people think church is something you belong to if you measure up to a set of standards. There are social standards: having enough money, wearing the right clothes, or living in the right neighborhood. Others think of behavioral standards: if you don’t smoke, drink, swear, gamble, or carouse, you can be a member.

By contrast, Jesus said that to be in His church, the only standard that counts is spiritual – you must be born again. In other words, you must trust Jesus for your salvation, and demonstrate that you trust Him by inviting Him to live inside of you.

Trust Jesus. Only Jesus. Not the way you dress, or the neighborhood you live in, or the things you do or don’t do.

Of course, once you trust Jesus, He will start to change your behaviors. But that comes after, not before.

Which leads us to the second question: for whom does the church exist on earth?

The church exists, in great measure, for sinners. It’s a clinic of sorts, to which sick and hurting people may come for healing and therapy; not because they’ve conquered all their problems, but because they can’t, not by themselves.

The church is a sinner hospital, not a saint museum!

In fact, it’s the hypocrites that the church is there for. That’s right: the church exists for hypocrites!

The word “hypocrite,” in its original language, literally means “someone under judgment;” and people under judgment are precisely the people for whom Jesus died. People like you and me, who sometimes sin so habitually that we feel like we can’t help ourselves. And because we can’t help ourselves out of our sin, we need a Savior. That’s why He came, as the Apostle Paul wrote, “the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

Indeed, the church exists because, as God’s word says in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory;” and because we all need equal access to the one and only Savior. It has nothing to do with how good you are, where you live, how you dress, or whether you’ve overcome some bad habits.

So, when people say that the church is full of hypocrites, they’re right. And it’s a good thing, too. In fact, I can’t think of a better place for hypocrites to be, because without Jesus and His Church, all of us hypocrites would be going to hell.

This Sunday, I’ll be in church, along with a bunch of other hypocrites who’ve realized how much we need each other and our Savior. How about you?