When we moved, we inherited a new-ish washer, maybe a year or two old. After using it for a month, I can say with ample evidence that it is a travesty of a washer. It simply does not clean your clothes. If you want your clothes to be clean, you just about have to prewash them—so what good is the washer? In fact, why even call it a "washer" in the first place?
We have friends in the appliance business, third generation, independent appliance retailers and repairers who know their stuff. They warned me about these new washers a few years ago, and now I know they were absolutely correct. And, unfortunately, two people have told me that I got the worst brand—which, ironically, used to be considered the best! But they changed how the thing works. It doesn't use enough water to even cover the clothes and there is no agitator—the thing that is supposed to take the place of the old washboard. When you listen to this one, it seems to huff and puff, take a giant breath as if to pick up the load of clothes by wind power alone, then drop it, maybe a dozen times. That is supposed to clean the clothes. Why it takes a full hour to do nothing more than that, I can't figure out. It certainly isn't because it is actually laundering the clothes. In fact, I just read an article that is supposed to be objective, saying that the reason for buying a washer with an agitator is to get the clothes clean!
And all this has come about because men have decided to change their priorities when it comes to washing clothes. They want to use less water. They want bigger loads. They want to be able to wash delicate items without as much wear and tear. Notice: nowhere in there does it say that they want to get their clothes clean. Washers without agitators are known, even by industry experts, not to clean clothes.
When you change your purpose, when your priorities shift, something that is very important will also change, and maybe even disappear. This happens in every area of life. It can certainly happen in your religious life. What is the purpose of the church? To encourage one another, admonish one another, support one another, correct one another, and all in an effort to make sure as many of us as possible make it to Heaven. It is to be that foreordained institution that shows the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10).
The church is not a social club. Yes, we should all be gathering together at other times than the assembly in order to help one another and get to know one another better in that effort. We should be a family in every sense of the word. But having fun is not the purpose of the church.
It is not about physical blessings. It will not make us healthy or wealthy, except in spiritual terms—and that should be plenty enough for people who claim to follow a Lord who suffered, lived close to the poverty line, and served others day after day after day.
It's not about earning the respect of the world and being accepted on their terms. It's about following the Lord, doing his will, saying what he said, not what people think is the only appropriate and tactful thing to say. He never once adapted to the religious world's ways of thinking in order to avoid offense. It was very much, "My way or the highway" with him.
You cannot read the New Testament without realizing that the early church was nothing like some of the denominations out there. Things have been changed in the name of—progress? But do any of these changes save men's souls? Not if those men do not follow the Lord's teaching. If you love me, you will keep my commandments, John 14:15.
When we decide it's all about providing entertainment, living a "blessed" life here on this earth as society counts blessings, and making sure everyone likes us, we have completely changed God's plan for this body of people, the bride of his Son. In a very real way, we have become an agitator-less washer that will never make anyone clean.
…Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish…even as the Lord [loves] the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones (Eph 5:24-30).
Dene Ward