What the CHURCH is NOT
Every seminarian knows what the Church is. Today, let us remind ourselves what the Church is not.
We believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. The Church is ONE — just as God is One, and His Only-Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is One.
The CHURCH does not divide its unity, does not break into fragments that oppose each other in bitter rivalry.
The CHURCH is not a horizontal dimension of human existence, where earthly laws reign over spiritual ones.
The CHURCH is not a mirror of the state, bounded by political or ethnic borders.
The CHURCH does not wage war against itself, does not quarrel over property, does not divide its children into “ours” and “theirs,” does not feud, and does not drag the world to court.
The CHURCH is not subject to the state in any way. It is entirely independent, for its only Head is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The CHURCH is not a government institution of power, built on financial and administrative foundations, reinforced by the concrete of disciplinary control.
The CHURCH does not seek to dominate anyone or anything, being self-sufficient in God and free in the Holy Spirit.
The CHURCH does not wear the shackles of this world, for she is free from the chains of money and power.
The CHURCH is not military uniformity or barracks-style order.
The CHURCH is not the dead letter of the law. There is no frozen stagnation in her, for the ever-young Holy Spirit makes all things new within her.
The CHURCH does not strive for power, influence, or possession.
The CHURCH curses no one, threatens no one, persecutes no one, and coerces no one.
The CHURCH does not conceal evil behind good, nor does she distort Holy Scripture to justify ambition or to please the powerful.
There is no administrative totalitarianism in the CHURCH, but rather a hierarchy of holiness.
There is nothing in the CHURCH that belongs to the world which lives “in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (1 John 2:15–17)
And if you see any of the above in the lives of those who speak on behalf of the Church – know this: it has nothing to do with the Church.
