What is the goal of every church? To me, it is to show love the way Christ showed love. It is not the churches place to pass judgement on people. It is the churches responsibility however to show other members of the congregation how to live. This puts a lot on the churches shoulders. I am sure some will disagree with me, but if God is love and we live under the grace of God, then how are we as the church any better?
Does this mean we rewrite the Bible to suit our needs so that we include everyone? No. What it means is that we love a person no matter what. This is tough because as humans we have things in our head that fit nice and orderly according to our thoughts and when a person comes and disrupts that order, it throws our world into Chaos.
What is the key word here? Love. In order to love someone the way God has intended, we have to know what is meant by the word love. The Bible does define love as:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 New International Version (NIV)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
There are other verses about love in the Bible, but this is my favorite. This gives me a clear way to show love. However, I will say that it is difficult to live up to this definition, but we need to try. Why?
People have a tough time defining love, but if you ask someone how do they know, they will typically say something to the effect of “It is hard to describe, but I know it when I feel it.” So if people do not feel loved especially by the churches, then people will seek love where ever they can find it. If there definition of love is based on a lie that has been propagated by the Father of Lies, Satan, and the church does not really demonstrate love as defined by God, then what do you think will happen? They will go everywhere except to church.
We who represent the church need to change how we show love. This does not mean that we accept their sin as being ok, but at the same time it is not coming down on them like a ton of bricks calling them a sinner. However, before you ever start to point out anothers sin, remember this one verse:
Luke 6:42 New International Version (NIV)
42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
followed by this:
Romans 3:23-24 New International Version (NIV)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Start today and change the way you show others love.