Faulty Foundations

One reason people fall away from the faith is because they have built their faith on the wrong foundation. Sometimes we build our faith on a church. We become very passionate about our church and may even develop a my-church-is-better-than-your-church attitude. But there are a lot of great churches in the world. And we are all part of the church, not just a particular church.

Or we may have a favorite Bible teacher or may like one pastor better than another. This even happened with first-century believers. The apostle Paul warned, "For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?" (1 Corinthians 3:4–5).

There is nothing wrong with liking a certain pastor or enjoying a church that you are a part of. But don’t build the foundation of your faith on these things. Churches will disappoint you, because they are run by people. And people make mistakes. Sometimes they are misunderstood too.

Pastors will disappoint you as well, because they are human like everyone else. So if you build your foundation on a church or on a pastor, you can fall away one day, because those people might mess up.

Writing to the church at Corinth, Paul pointed out, "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11). It is all about you and God. And when you stand before Him one day, He will want to know what you did with Jesus—not whether everyone you knew who claimed to be a Christian behaved like one.

So don’t build your foundation on people. Build your foundation on Jesus Christ.