You Can’t Love the Church in Theory and Keep Avoiding It in Real Life
Christianity Today exposes one of modern faith’s most respectable evasions — praising the body of Christ while treating local congregations as optional.
Christianity Today’s May 13 essay “You Can’t Love the Church in the Abstract” exposes one of the most respectable evasions in modern Christianity.
For many modern Christians, abstraction has become a refuge. We talk about “the church” warmly while remaining detached from churches concretely.
An abstract church never disappoints you the way a real one can. It never asks you to forgive a difficult person. It never expects your time.
Because Christianity has always been stubbornly local. The body of Christ is cosmic, yes — but it is also embodied in gathered people, in named elders, in shared meals, in mutual care.
And you cannot get most of that from abstraction.
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3 Takeaways
- Loving “the church” in principle is easier than loving a specific church in practice.
- Abstraction can become a form of spiritual avoidance. It protects Christians from the costly love that local belonging requires.
- The universal church is glorious, but it is usually learned through local fidelity. Love has to become embodied somewhere.
Bottom line: You cannot truly love the church only as an idea. At some point, Christian love has to take the risk of becoming local, patient, and inconvenient — because that is where the body of Christ stops being a concept and becomes a people.
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