Recap
Last time we talked about what actually sets us apart - God’s love and His Holy Spirit, not our performance. We saw how we’re set apart because we’re loved, not loved because we’ve set ourselves apart. We talked about breaking free from that performance mindset that tells us we’re more loved on good days and less loved on bad days.
But if all of that is true - if we’re set apart by God’s work, not our own - then this raises a really important question.
Maybe you’re asking it now. It’s this, “Well, from what I’ve seen of the church, it doesn’t look very set apart. What’s gone wrong?”
I get it. The church can be disappointing. It’s full of broken people who will let you down. Leaders fail. People gossip. There’s division, hurt feelings, and sometimes genuinely bad decisions are made. If this is supposed to be God’s set apart people, why does it look so... ordinary? Flawed? Messy?
Here’s what I hope to show you in this episode, that the messiness of the church isn’t something that’s gone wrong, it’s actually part of the design. The imperfections aren’t evidence that the church has failed; they’re evidence that the church is working as Jesus designed it.
Obviously I have to caveat this. I’m referencing the messiness of church that comes with the imperfections of people. I’m not excusing sin, and I’m certainly not excusing poor leadership and the abuse of power. That isn’t how Jesus designed the church. And leaders will be held to a higher account for that reason.
So to be clear: expecting church to be perfect is unrealistic and not Jesus’s intended design. But expecting safety, integrity and Christ-like leadership is entirely appropriate and absolutely part of Jesus’s intended design.
How We Measure Set Apart
Okay, so why doesn’t the church look set apart?
The problem is what we’re measuring. Don’t fall back into the trap of the Pharisees and their performance mindset.
As we established last time, it’s really easy to look like a good Christian, and as we know, that’s not what this is about. Which means we all, at some point, although set apart, will not look like good Christians. And that’s okay. I’m not excusing sin - I’m just acknowledging reality.
Remember the Pharisees? They wanted to look like they had it all together, which means brokenness and the reality of our imperfections didn’t have a place in their group. But that’s exactly the opposite of what Jesus came to do.
Look at what Matthew records Jesus saying.
Matthew 9:10-13 (NIV)
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus intentionally ate with the messy people. The broken ones. The ones the religious establishment rejected. The ones who would have never found a place with the Pharisees.
Church as the Doctor’s Office
Can you imagine going to the doctor and saying, “Yeah, I could do with some help, I’m not very well,” and the doctor saying, “Woah woah woah! You’re not well? What are you doing here then? Off you go! Find somewhere else to go. Who do you think I am? Someone who heals the sick?”
And then just for good measure an announcement comes over the PA system in the waiting room. “Please, if anyone here is sick, leave the building, this place isn’t for you.”
That would be ridiculous. And it’s just as ridiculous when we do this at church.
Look at what Jesus said: I have come to call sinners. That’s you and me. Broken and imperfect.
This is Jesus’s chosen design for the church. Remember, the church isn’t a building, it’s the people. Who are these people? The sick! Sinners.
Dane Ortlund writes about this beautifully in his book ‘Gentle and Lowly.’ It’s one of my all time favourites.
He uses the image of a compassionate doctor who travels deep into the jungle to help a tribe suffering from a disease. The doctor has everything needed to heal them, the right equipment, the correct diagnosis, the antibiotics. He’s independently wealthy and needs no payment. But the sick refuse his help. They want to heal on their own terms. When a few finally step forward to receive the free care, what does the doctor feel? Joy. Why? Because that’s the whole reason why he came.
Dane Ortlund then writes this, talking about Jesus,
He does not get flustered and frustrated when we come to Him for fresh forgiveness, for renewed pardon, with distress and need and emptiness. That’s the whole point. It’s what He came to heal.
If we forget that, we become self-righteous. We find ourselves ten years into our transformation, we’re behaving better outwardly - hopefully mostly due to transformation not performance - but we have no mercy on those just starting out, or those who’ve had more trauma in their lives, or those whose healing is taking longer than ours. We forget that we have not set ourselves apart, but we too, just like the sinners surrounding us, have been set apart by Jesus.
It’s like looking around the doctor’s waiting room and being shocked at seeing others with a cold and judging them for it. And you might say, “Well, you’ve been here for ages, aren’t you better yet?” Yeah, well some colds take longer to heal than others. Some people have more complex conditions. Some have been injured more deeply.
Any healthy position I find myself in is a result of the doctor, not me. It’s the same for you too.
No One is Perfect
Let’s not pretend that anyone in church is really that good. Every single person has the potential to disappoint you - if they haven’t already, just wait or get to know them better.
Me too. Don’t think I’ve got it all together just because I’m talking about being set apart. I can be really self-absorbed and distracted by my own wants, and insecure. When I feel out of control, I worry and rage and swear at the despair of it all.
I’m not perfect - I’m being made new. It’s a funny tension - we should expect brokenness and expect healing. Welcome to church.
We’re all in need of the doctor.
Don’t Throw the Baby Out
If you see the lack of perfection in the church and feel the heartache of that - can I invite you to feel it? That’s okay. It’s okay to hope for more, you’re actually hoping for heaven.
And you actually only get to do that on this side of heaven. This is a deeper work of transformation you’re stepping into. To sit in that feeling and practice the patience that God is currently practicing for each of us is deeply forming. So stay and sit.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater or think what you’re looking for can be found in something else - politics, ideologies, a different church, or something you could set up on your own. Messiness is the reality of the church because this is how Jesus designed it.
So back to our original statement, “the church doesn’t look set apart,” well, that depends on what you’re looking for.
If you’re looking for perfection, then no, the church absolutely does not look set apart.
But if you’re looking for a place where the broken are invited - then that’s what you’ll find.
Where the sick find healing - then that’s what you’ll find.
Where the outcast discovers the love of God - then you’re in the right place.
A set apart church should look messy because that was Jesus’s design all along. We aren’t looking for the end goal - the perfection we’re all secretly chasing - we’re looking for the transformation.
The sick are becoming healthy.
The hopeless are finding hope.
The downtrodden are discovering their God-given purpose.
From glory to glory. Because no one has arrived yet.
But this raises another question: if I’m already set apart individually by God’s love and the Holy Spirit, if He’s the one doing the transforming work, then why do I need church at all? Can’t I just pursue God on my own without all the mess and disappointment of community?
That one’s for next time. We’ll look at why both individual sanctification and community are essential. For now, let’s end as always with a question and prayer.
Question
What stood out to you from this episode? Maybe it challenged how you think about church, or maybe it helped you see broken people (including yourself) with more compassion.
If you’re feeling convicted about how you’ve judged others in the church, that’s the Holy Spirit’s gentle work of transformation.
What would it look like to approach church, and the people in it, with more mercy than judgment?
Prayer
Lord, thank you that you discipline those you love, and any conviction we feel is your loving work of sanctification. We bring our judgments and opinions before you. Forgive us where we’ve lacked mercy. Help us see others the way you see them - broken people in need of healing, just like us. Help us live lives marked by humility, grace, and love. In the precious name of Jesus, amen.