WHY THE TRUE CHURCH IS MISJUDGED

 THE TRUE CHURCH IS MISJUDGED BECAUSE GOD BUILDS IT THROUGH DREGS, SINNERS, HERESIES, AND ROOTING OUT

By Jonas T  Suizo

The true Church has always carried a strange and uncomfortable paradox: it is the most attacked, misjudged, and easily labeled “cult” precisely because of what God Himself allows inside it. The Scriptures are clear that God never built His people out of the already-perfect. Christ came not for the righteous, but for sinners, for the sick, for the broken, and for those heavy-laden with iniquity. Because of this, every true move of God is born inside a messy construction zone, full of people who carry baggage, deception, stubbornness, and all kinds of spiritual diseases that must be healed and rooted out. This is why Paul declared that heresies must be present among the people, so that those who are truly approved may be revealed (1 Corinthians 11:19). In other words, God intentionally allows a mixture inside His Church because separation and purification cannot happen without contrast. Authenticity is only visible when it stands next to corruption.

This is also the reason why the true Church is so often misunderstood. Outsiders judge it based on the presence of deceived people—those who “have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). They see false prophets and false brethren operating within the assembly, not knowing that this is part of the divine process of uprooting (Jeremiah 1:10). Peter warned that false prophets would arise among the people and that many would follow their destructive ways (2 Peter 2:1–2), while Paul declared that God Himself would send strong delusion to those who refuse the love of the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:8–12). When the world looks in, all they see is a complicated mix of corrupted voices and misguided people—and instantly call it a cult. But what they fail to realize is that the very chaos they condemn is the battlefield where God sorts the faithful from the counterfeit.

The true Church, being a hospital for sinners and emotionally immature, naturally becomes filled with people described in Scripture using the images of beasts—not to demean them, but to reveal the spiritual disorders that must be healed. Ephraim is called a “silly dove” (Hosea 7:11), unstable and easily swayed. Others are like leopards unable to change their spots (Jeremiah 13:23), stubbornly repeating the same sins. Some move like roaring lions driven by fear (1 Peter 5:8), while others hide under the disguise of wolves in sheep’s clothing, spreading misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (Matthew 7:15; John 10:12). Still others behave like dogs, forming wicked assemblies and returning to their own vomit (Psalm 22:16; Proverbs 26:11; 2 Peter 2:22). There are those whose speech is poisonous like serpents and adders who refuse correction (Psalm 58:4–5), and some act as brute beasts who speak about things they do not understand (Jude 1:10). And then there are the creeping things—the unsubmitted, disorderly, unclean influences that crawl around without rule or reverence (Habakkuk 1:14). These are the raw materials God is working with. These are the people He is transforming.

But the harshest rebuke comes from Isaiah, who shows how the true Church becomes misunderstood: “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib, but Israel does not know; my people do not consider.” (Isaiah 1:3). Many inside the Church do not yet recognize their Master. They do not yet submit, they do not yet listen, and they do not yet walk as God’s possession. This spiritual immaturity makes the entire community look chaotic from the outside. But this is the divine construction zone. This is the furnace where God melts the metal and reveals the gold. Misjudgment comes not because the Church is false, but because the world—and even many believers—cannot recognize the process of sanctification when it is still messy, loud, imperfect, and filled with people in various stages of being healed.

So yes, the true Church appears scandalous, unstable, and easily criticized. But this is exactly where God works. The presence of sinners does not disprove the Church—it proves that God is still healing. The presence of heresies does not invalidate it—it confirms that God is revealing who truly belongs to Him. And the presence of deceived people, beasts, wolves, dogs, serpents, and those who refuse to hearken only means the Church is alive, being sifted, purified, and brought toward completion. The true Church is misjudged because people only see the dirt God is removing, not the gold He is refining. The world sees chaos. God sees construction. And those who are approved will, in time, shine plainly for all to see.