Proverbs 31:27 commentary: the busy church

27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.

The church takes care of the needs of its people. This includes physical needs and spiritual. No one in the church who doesn’t have a family to help them should go without food, shelter, heat, or clothing. No one in the church should go without spiritual needs met. The church should be teaching how to read the Bible; to find instruction and comfort from it, to be taught by the Holy Spirit through it. Each time the church meets they should be edified by preaching and teaching, singing together and prayer. Singing together is a great bonder. The famous fighting group “The French Foreign Legion” uses the singing of martial songs to build the team spirit. Trainees are punished by extra physical training who don’t sing with all their hearts. I watched this (in a film, of course) at a place where they trained called “The Farm.” It was truly remarkable.

The church is not slothful. Idleness is not part of her agenda. There are needs to be met, the gospel to be preached, the Bible to be taught, and souls to be led closer to the Lord who created them and away from the usurper who seeks only to destroy. The church that is not about the Lord’s business is prone to infiltration by Satan and his ministers. The church is not a social club where “good people” meet once to three times a week to feel spiritual. The church is a living, breathing organism, the body of Christ on earth with the head in heaven.

Always looking up, but with hand and heart stretched out to those around her, the church fulfills hits mission in the world, while it is still here.