(from “Problems of the Christian Life” series, Baptist Standard, July 10, 1968)
It may sound sacrilegious to speak of sins in the sanctuary. It should be remembered, however, that Jesus cleansed the temple. It is possible that contemporary churches need to be cleansed.
Our church buildings have been dedicated to God and to His worship. How thoroughly are they being used to fulfill His purposes? The sanctuary stands in the community as a symbol of God’s presence among the people. Do the people recognize it as such a symbol? Whether they do will be determined largely by the prevalence or absence of certain sins in the sanctuary.
One sin that has to be guarded against is a worldly pride in the building itself. Certainly a church should provide a worthy house for the Lord, but it has to watch or an unworthy pride will creep in.
This pride frequently expresses itself in a boastful parade of the cost. There may also be pride in some of the luxuries that add nothing to efficiency.
Pride in the building may repel the people the church needs most to reach. It is possible that some members will prefer for certain types of people not to be reached by the church.
The latter may be an expression of self-satisfaction and self-centeredness.
Closely akin to, if not identical with, the preceding sins in the sanctuary is the spirit of self-righteousness. This was the only sin specifically condemned by Jesus. It was the sin of the Pharisees, the most “religious” people of that day.
Too many who attend regularly the services in our sanctuaries pray, secretly if not openly, the prayer of the Pharisee, “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are” (Luke 18:11). We need to have, even in the sanctuary, the spirit of the publican who prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
One of the besetting sins of us who regularly attend the services is a failure to recognize our sinfulness. Too many of us do not recognize that “all we like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6), that all of us “have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Also, entirely too many of us go from the sanctuary unchanged. This is a sin. We supposedly came to worship God. We can be sure that if we are not changed when we leave His house, we have not worshiped Him.
If we, through genuine worship, have had a vision of the God revealed in the Scriptures, then we will go out of the sanctuary to attempt to make that vision a reality in the world. If we do not go into the world, it is a sin. If we go with any purpose other than to serve, it is also a sin.