These days it’s popular to make such claims like: ” I love Jesus but not like organized religion. “ Or the ever-popular: “I am spiritual but not religious .” I often remind those making the latter that the devil was spiritual also, and he believed in Jesus as well.

The devil in fact wants us to believe all we need is the belief  in Jesus, and if we are a good person, whatever that means, we don’t need religion or to go to Church. Jesus, on the other hand, has quite a different idea. He started a Church with Peter as its first leader and he prayed that his Church would be one and that there would no dissension.

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”…Matthew 17 

              God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. 10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree together, so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be united in mind and conviction. First Corinthians 1:  9

No Church is perfect, just as Peter himself was not. Remember Peter denied Christ yet Christ chose Peter as the leader of his Church.  None of the other Apostles were perfect either. But that doesn’t negate Jesus’s desire for us to participate in His Church— the One –Holy –Catholic –Apostolic Church. The one he promised the gates of hell would not prevail against.