If you love Me, you will love the church

"Every metaphor used in Scripture to describe the church shows how deeply God cares. He calls the church his bride (Eph 5:25-32). He calls it his household or family (2:19). He says we are his temple in which he dwells by his Spirit (2:21). He says we are his body (1:22). How can we claim to know and love Jesus and yet be indifferent toward his bride, his temple, his family, his own body?

"...What if we saw that the church is more than a human program, more than what we disparagingly refer to as organized religion? What if we saw that it originated in the heart and mind of God himself and that his plan began before the dawn of human history and stretches into eternity? What if we learned that the church was so precious to Jesus that he was willing to shed his own blood to obtain it? What if the church is the means by which God has chosen to accomplish his purpose for us and for the world? And what if it is irreplaceable? If we could see this, then we'd realize that rejecting the church is rejecting God himself."

-Joshua Harris in Dug Down Deep (2010), pp. 197, 199 (title from D.Webb's "The Church")