Love 3

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. ¹⁷ In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.


¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.


1 John 4:16-21


If you go to the Heartland Church web site and find the staff section, you will find a blurb from each staff member about their "desire for HC."  Here is what my blurb says:  "My first desire for Heartland Church is to see us continue to relentlessly pursue our role in fulfilling the Great Commission.  My second goal is similar: to always be a Church that puts God first and loves people.  Simple."


At the end of the day, I think church really is (or at least should be) simple.  Our job is to spread the Gospel and to disciple believers.  We accomplish those objectives primarily by learning to really love God and by learning to really love other people.    


I question sometimes, though, whether the church (meaning the Body of Christ as a whole) does a very good job of teaching what it really means to love other people.  It seems like much of the teaching in the church these days is inwardly focused.  It is about improving your life -- learning to be a better "you."


And, while part of the Christian walk must be inwardly focused, the ultimate goal of "sanctification" is to live a life that is outwardly focused.  The point of internal transformation is to change the focus of our priorities, our desires, our aspirations and so forth away from self and toward God and other people.


As it says in First John, if we don't love other people, we don't actually love God either.  That's pretty interesting, isn't it?  If you do not actually love your "brother," you cannot actually love God.  In fact, if you do not love your brother and yet claim to love God you are a liar!


I often hear people comment about how welcomed and loved they feel when they visit Heartland Church.  It is a gratifying thing to hear.  It tells me that Pastor Dan has been effective in modeling Christian love to our staff, to our leadership, and to our congregation.


But, the implication of those comments is that feeling loved and wanted is not necessarily a universal church experience.  And, that troubles me.  Church leaders by definition must become experts on how to love other people.


I have spoken and written a number of times about a book called unChristian, which talks about the negative perceptions that younger people have of the church in America today.  The negative perceptions that come to mind are that Christians are generally judgmental and hypocritical.


I think that most -- if not all -- of those negative perceptions could be erased if we just learned to love each other better.  Love is a powerful force.  


If we want to see the Church thrive, if we want to see "revival", we are going to have to do a better job of teaching what loving our brother looks like through God's eyes.  Just my opinion.