Is it possible to lose your love for God and your fellow believers? According to Jesus, yes it is. Often we are so busy doing good things, sacrificing for God, working on projects, going to committee meetings, and going on missions trips that we forget the most fundamental thing: love. It should characterize every Christian and everything we do. Are we just being busy for God, or are we truly loving others? After all, this was His greatest commandment—to love God and to love one another. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15 NIV) and, “This is My commandment, that you love one another” (John 15:12 NKJV).
If you were to ask those in or around your church—like the homeless, the single mom, the recently divorced, the childless couple, the teenagers, the mentally ill, and the immigrant—if your church loves them, what would they say? What would Christ say? The church in Ephesus (Revelation 2) started out well, but along the busy road of Christian activity lost its love and was in danger of having its candle snuffed out. How’s your church doing? What would Christ’s opinion be about the condition of your heart rather than how full your church calendar is?
Christ said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13 NKJV). I often look around during the worship service and ask myself. “Who among these people would I be willing to die for?” Sadly, apart from my family, very few make the list. Christ prayed that we would have the same relationship with one another that He had with his Father so “the world may know that you sent me and that you have loved them as you loved me” (John 17:23 ISV). If we cannot even demonstrate love for one another, how can the lost ever know what true love looks like? The church is the one place on earth that anyone should be able to walk into and find God’s love. May it be true of your church and mine.
