Reverence for Christ's Church is reverence for Jesus.
To reject the Authority of Christ's Church is to reject the Authority of Christ.
Christ identifies Himself with His Church.
Jesus said to Saul, "why do you persecute me?"
That's why Jesus said to those who reject the authority of His Church, "if he will not listen to the Church, treat him as a pagan or tax collector."
Paul tells us that the Church is "the pillar and foundation of truth," and that It is "the Body of Christ."
What subject did Jesus preach on the most? The fact that He was establishing a Kingdom. There are 155 mentions of "Kingdom" in the New Testament.
The fallacy that the Catholic Church is that body is fiction and a lie of Satan.
I hate to toss out the yellow CONTEXT foul flag; but... here it is:
Matthew 18:15-17 “Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that ‘in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.
Do you REALLY want to try to use this verse to JUSTIFY obeying YOUR chosen religion??
Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]
Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.
Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy
Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy
Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]
Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]
Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]
Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.
...exercise discernment.