When a Church Doesn't Know It's Wrong!

The Church That Doesn't Check Itself

There is a frightening thing that can happen to any church, and it happens quietly. Not with a scandal. Not with a split. It happens when a church stops holding itself up against the Word of God. It keeps meeting. It keeps singing. It keeps preaching. But it never once stops to ask, are we still on the path God set us on? And here is the danger — a church can wander a very long way from the truth and never feel a thing. It doesn't know it's wrong. That is the whole problem.

God never told us to measure the church by numbers, buildings, atmosphere or applause. He gave us one measure — His Word. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them [Isaiah 8:20 KJV]. When a church stops checking itself against that, it does not stay still. It drifts.

A Slow Drift, Not a Sudden Fall

Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to abandon the truth. Drift does not work like that. It is slow. It is gentle. It is one small compromise, then another, and another — until the church is standing somewhere it would never have agreed to stand ten years before.

Paul warned us this day would come. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears [2 Timothy 4:3 KJV]. Notice — it is not the world that turns from sound doctrine there. It is people inside the church, choosing teachers who tell them what they want to hear. The drift always feels comfortable. That is exactly why it is so dangerous.

When the World Creeps In

Here is the harder truth. A church that stops examining itself does not stay empty — it starts absorbing. And what it absorbs is the world. The world's thinking, the world's methods, the world's values, all dressed up in Christian language.

Scripture is blunt about this: Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind [Romans 12:2 KJV]. The world never stops pushing its shape onto the church. And a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump [Galatians 5:9 KJV] — a little compromise, left unchecked, spreads through everything. A church can end up looking, sounding and behaving exactly like the culture around it, and still be convinced it is faithful. That is what it means when a church does not know it is wrong.

Following Men Instead of the Master

Then there is the worst case of all. A church that is no longer free to move. Tied into a larger system — an overarching structure of men and man-made government — that it follows blindly and cannot step away from, even when that system leads it clean off the path of God's Word.

Understand this clearly: our loyalty is to Christ, not to a hierarchy of men. When the apostles were commanded by the religious authorities of their day to stop preaching the truth, their answer was simple: We ought to obey God rather than men [Acts 5:29 KJV]. A church that cannot say that — a church that has surrendered its conscience to a human system it dare not question — has already handed away something that belongs to God alone. Headship belongs to Christ. He is the Head of the body. No committee, no council, no denomination sits above the Word.

The Mirror of the Word

So how does a church keep from drifting? The same way a believer does. It looks in the mirror — and the mirror is the Word.

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves [2 Corinthians 13:5 KJV]. That is not a one-off. That is a habit. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good [1 Thessalonians 5:21 KJV]. A healthy church is a self-checking church — one that keeps asking, honestly and continually, does this line up with Scripture, or have we simply got used to it?

And you can tell the state of a church by what it produces. Ye shall know them by their fruits [Matthew 7:16 KJV]. Not by the polish of the production, but by the fruit of the lives. Are people becoming doers of the Word, or just consumers of a service?

Come Back to the Basics

Here is the good news, and it is very good. A church that has drifted is not a church that is finished. The Lord's word to a church that had lost its first love was not "you are beyond hope." It was this: Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works [Revelation 2:5 KJV]. Remember. Repent. Return.

That is the way back for any church, and for you within it. Go back to the foundation. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ [1 Corinthians 3:11 KJV]. Get back to the Book. Get back to obedience. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves [James 1:22 KJV].

So here is the step to take this week. Do not just examine the church around you — examine yourself first. Open your Bible, hold your own walk up against it, and where the Word and your life do not match, let the Word win. If a church will check itself against Scripture continually, honestly, and humbly, it will not drift. And a church full of people doing that — people who walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work [Colossians 1:10 KJV] — is a church that always knows exactly where it stands.

Because a church only gets lost when it stops looking at the map. And our map has never changed…

Key Takeaways:

• A church that never checks itself against Scripture will drift without ever realising it — [Isaiah 8:20 KJV]
• Falling away is slow and comfortable, not sudden — guard against itching ears — [2 Timothy 4:3 KJV]
• What a church stops examining, it starts absorbing from the world — [Romans 12:2 KJV]
• Even a little compromise spreads through the whole lump — [Galatians 5:9 KJV]
• Our loyalty is to Christ, not to a system of men — [Acts 5:29 KJV]
• Self-examination must be a continual habit, not a one-off — [2 Corinthians 13:5 KJV]
• A drifted church can always remember, repent and return — [Revelation 2:5 KJV]
• The only sure foundation is Jesus Christ — [1 Corinthians 3:11 KJV]

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