I remember listening to a Christian radio station when a caller asked, “What should I look for in a church?” The host responded by saying, “The thing I look for is fellowship. That’s the most important thing in choosing a church.”

That may be a good feature of a church—but that is not the right answer.

Some people say the most important feature of a church is how interesting the preacher is. Others say it’s how good the music is. More carnal people might say that it’s about easy parking or a comfortable auditorium. People look for all kinds of things—we would probably be amazed if we knew what everyone was looking for.

But the most essential feature of a church is how they handle the truth. Our first question should always be, What do they believe about the Word of God, and what do they believe it teaches?

The Purpose of the Church

The church has the solemn responsibility to protect divine revelation and the content of the Christian faith. It must be the vault that keeps the truth and the voice that proclaims it. That is why the apostle Paul calls the church “the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

As a pastor in Ephesus, Timothy would have understood Paul’s illustration well. Ephesus was home to an edifice built for Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians. The enormous temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, along with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Great Pyramids. But its most striking feature was its pillars. It had 127 massive marble pillars overlaid with gold and studded with jewels.

Above the pillars was the immense roof, and underneath the pillars was the hedraiōma, which means “the support” or “the ground.” This was the temple’s foundation.

So the temple was a massive stone foundation supporting 127 solid marble columns holding up a vast roof. And that whole structure, with its foundation, pillars, and roof, was a testimony to Satan and to lies. Much like the Vatican, it was an elaborate monument to deception.

The church, in contrast, is to be a monument to the truth. That was Paul’s message to Timothy. Our mission and purpose, the reason we exist, is to represent the truth. That means that if we fail to uphold and live the truth, we cease to be the church. Many people blithely come in and out of church never realizing that they’re interacting with the God of truth who hates deception and lies.

Jude said it this way: “Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 3). That powerful expression, “contend earnestly,” stresses the need to defend the truth continually and vigorously (cf. 1 Timothy 1:18; 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7). In the Greek text, it is a compound verb from which we get the English word agonize. From Jude’s day until now, believers have always needed to battle for the purity of the Christian faith.

It’s also worth noting that in referring to “the faith,” Jude was not speaking of some kind of personal religious preference. Rather, he wrote, “the faith,” meaning the Christian faith. This was the doctrine or theology delivered to us in the Bible. It is what Luke wrote about in Acts 2:42, noting that the early believers “were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (emphasis added; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1–4; 2 Thessalonians 3:6). “The faith” and “the apostles’ teaching” refer to a body of doctrine that the church must earnestly defend.

This is exactly what Paul admonished Timothy to do. “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:13–14; cf. 1 Timothy 6:19–20). Doctrine is a treasure that the church must protect.

A Neglected Purpose

Today, the evidence suggests that the church does not take this duty seriously. This is the most concerning scandal in the church. The biggest scandal is not sexual, heinous as such sins are. It’s not financial, as despicable as the misuse of money is.

The primary scandal—the first and underlying flaw—is not how pastors handle their bodies and their money. It’s how they handle Scripture. That is the deviation that has been too frequently overlooked in the church. The media ignores it, publishers and platforms ignore it—and the church ignores it.

The greatest sin in the church is the misinterpretation and misappropriation of God’s holy Word. That’s what scandalizes heaven beyond all else, because Christian ministry is supposed to be a depository that guards the truth.

Psalm 138:2 says, “You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.” Because Scripture is the self-revelation of God, it bears an unparalleled dignity—if you pervert it, you misrepresent God. It is the ultimate sacred trust, and with that trust comes the responsibility to keep the message pure. Hence, in 2 Corinthians 2:17, Paul says, “We are not as many, which corrupt the word of God” (KJV). We are not to be like those who adulterate the teaching of God’s Word in order to line their pockets—or for any other reason.

There are always hucksters who corrupt God’s Word for the sake of their fleshly desires, but it should not be that way among God’s people. Paul continues in that same verse, “But as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.” We are not charlatans using the Bible to manipulate people for our own ends; we must have integrity in the sight of God when we speak of Christ. We uphold the purity of holy Scripture and the doctrine it teaches.

To manipulate and distort the truth, or to mix it with error, is to invite God’s eternal wrath. That’s why Paul told the Galatians, “If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” (Galatians 1:9). And the apostle John told his readers,

Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. (2 John 9–11)

In contrast to the emphasis of the New Testament, much of the professing church today is atheological, that is, without any significant theological convictions. Like the world around them, many people who go by the name of Christ believe that to hold and teach absolute doctrines is to be unloving, antagonistic, and even “unchristian.” To hold people to a certain doctrinal standard is considered archaic and authoritarian. But that is exactly what the New Testament calls the church to do. It is the duty of Christians to faithfully uphold the Bible’s teaching and to guard it against the countless wolves whose natural instinct is to distort it.

Reclaiming Our Forgotten Purpose

When you consider that martyrs have given their blood for the preservation of the Bible throughout church history, you realize how highly they esteemed Scripture—they truly believed it was holy. They poured out their very lives to guard the faith once handed down to the church. Compare that with those who play fast and loose with that same faith, treating it flippantly, as if it were nothing more than a secondary concern.

But the issue of sound doctrine is at the heart of all the problems in the church—it is the primary concern of the church. If we don’t know the truth and do our utmost to uphold it, then the church will have a deficient immune system due to lack of discernment. And if we lack a functioning immune system, we’ll die from a thousand illnesses. We can’t foolishly open ourselves to those who deceive by misinterpreting and misrepresenting the truth. Of all things to be protected, the truth is the most important.

That is why we will turn our attention to this subject in upcoming blog posts. Today, it is commonly thought that doctrine is optional at best, and harmful at worst, in the life of the church. But nothing could be further from the truth. Doctrine matters—most profoundly. And the consequences of failing to recognize that are devastating.

Sadly, the costliest breaches of sound doctrine are perpetrated by those who are charged with proclaiming it to His people. That is why the Holy Spirit delivered only one skill as requisite for the pastoral office: the ability to teach and defend the truth (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:9). It is that critical duty that we will address next time.