Are You Manifesting Biblical love?
part 4
How can you know that you are manifesting the kind of love that Christ demands of us in His church? Let me ask you a few diagnostic questions.
- Do you pray for the spiritual growth of those in your church or do you gossip about their shortcomings?
- Do you stay to visit with those in your church or are you the first one out the door on Sunday.
- Do you practice hospitality to those in your church or are you a recluse?
- Do you spend time with God in your "closet" so that you have something to give or does your spirituality only exist when you are around people?
- Do you witness to the lost people around you or do you live callously and uncaringly about their eternal destiny?
Answering these questions is important in understanding whether or not you are truly loving. To love as Christ loves is a high calling and is not done by wimpy Christians. It is easy to respond negatively to hatred and persecution, to feel one’s needs are not being met, to see faults in others, to spend money on ourselves, to be a recluse, and to not get involved in lost people’s lives. But that would not be like Jesus would it? Jesus said that we should go out into all the world making disciples (rubbing shoulders with lost people with the goal to winning them to Christ) baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that He has commanded us. If we need to teach fellow Christians to obey all that He commanded us doesn’t it stand to reason that they will not be obeying all that He commanded us? And that being the case we will have ample opportunity to be offended and leave, but we cannot if we are there to teach others to obey!
The time has come to ask yourself are you serious about the high calling of Christ. How can you ever grow in your love for others if you let their faults/sins put you off? Did not God love us while we were yet sinners? Does He not still love you even though you still are far from perfect?
One possible sign that someone has an unloving heart is when they leave a church. Most people leave churches because they do not love those in the church. Oh, I know, they would not say as much, they would present excuses like these;
- The Lord is leading me to another church.
- It is time to move on.
- My needs were not being met at this church.
- This church is dead.
These and a myriad other excuses are given thousands of times each year. All of them are excuses not to love. Very rarely does anyone leave a church for Biblical reasons. If you have left a church in the last five years or so I would ask you to think about why you left. Be honest with yourself. Chances are it had more to do about your lack of love than any fault of theirs. Chances are you did not love them enough to overcome your own problems or the problems of others.
Biblical love is not easy it is however, the sign of belonging to Christ. We are known to be His disciples by our love one for another. Are you ready to love those in your local church to such an extent that outsiders know you are Christ’s disciple? Are you ready to love your enemies, love those who are hard to love? You can do it, have faith and love God. Now go to church and love others!
Pastor Jeff
