"But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
" (Galatians 5: 15)
Churches can be unpleasant places for people.
There is a great deal of reproach and shame in churches. A dedicated group, for example, will protect the institution often at the expense of the people and the Gospel.
Yet the Gospel is all about Christ Jesus and Him Crucified!
He did not come to give us an example, He did not come to make bad men good, but He came to make dead men live. In fact, He came that we who were dead in our trespasses could receive Himself, His life in us, that we may sit in heavenly places with Him (Ephesians 2: 4-6) and reign in life with Him (Romans 5: 17).
Jesus is the head of the Church, for without Him, there is no Body of Christ.
Unfortunately, just like the Galatian church, congregations today have brought back the law. They conclude that even though Jesus Christ died on the Cross for our sins, we are on our own, or we can rely on our own efforts to be obedient.
Paul rebuked this mistake:
"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? " (Galatians 3: 1-3)
While the Corinthian Church was filled with divisions and upsets, Paul reserves his harshest words for the Galatians, because they were bringing back the law into their lives.
Now, the Ten Commandments and all the ritualistic laws attached to it are the ministry of death and condemnation:
"And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 6Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (2 Corinthians 3": 4-6)
The letter kills — this letter speaks of the Ten Commandments, not just the ceremonial law.
Then Paul writes:
"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 9For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory." (2 Corinthians 3: 7-9)
The Law only demonstrates to us that we are sinners, guilty before God:
"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3: 19-20)
and
"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5: 20-21)
Wow! The Law was never meant to justify us, but rather to prove to us that we cannot justify ourselves.
We need a savior, and Jesus who died for us and was raised for us, sits at the right hand of God the father justifying us now and forever more!
"[Jesus] was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." (Romans 4: 25)
and
"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8: 34)
Yet as long as we seek to obey the law to find justification, we will produce the works of the flesh:
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5: 19-21)
The works of the flesh include wrath and strife, much of which is all too common in churches today.
Such things should not be the case, but how can it be otherwise of church leaders, if pastors and Sunday School teachers do not proclaim Christ and Him Crucified and the New Covenant released to us in His blood?
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 24And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." (Hebrews 10: 19-25)
When the law is removed once and for all from pulpits, when the ministry of righteousness in Christ is restored and expounded, the discord and disrespect in our churches will cease, and without a doubt people will run to churches to see Christ and grow in grace and knowledge of Him.
As of now, however, in all too many churches, the law and works of the flesh are preached, and for this reason condemnation, back-biting, devouring, and ultimately the consumption and dissolution of churches has become all too prevalent.