Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 1Thessalonians4:9NIV

I have read this verse many times, but as happens often with Scripture, there are new insights to be mined at just the right time. This is such a time.

When we want to do the best for our church community, we will recommend a new course of study, preferably leading to a certificate of some kind, or check out a new program, but are these things really as important as we make them out to be? I would suggest that love is the answer. But then a verse like this sheds more light on our knowledge and intent because we have been taught by God to love one another. Did the full impact hit you as it did me?

This means that if we don’t show love to one another, that is directly due to the fact that God hasn’t taught us that lesson yet. No brotherly or sisterly love means no God in that part of our lives. Put even more simply, no love equals no God. This message was not strictly for individuals, as the epistle was penned to the church at Thessalonica. To state the obvious, we might belong to a church that is not very ‘loving’, if at all. But how would we know?

These could be pointers, but not an exhaustive list:

> Only being told you were missed on a Sunday, when you are there the following week. In other words, no one phones during the week to see how you are.

> Leadership whether pastoral or church board do not take the lead in showing love. In fact, everyone thinks and expects that someone else is in touch.

> There is no prayer made for someone who may have missed a few Sundays at church.

> Your church friends are more likely to say (when they see you the following week) I’ve been thinking about you, but not I’m praying for you. There IS a difference.

> Perhaps your pastor will not come and pray for and with you, eg before a significant life event.

> We are known as a ‘once vibrant church’, and not a loving community of believers.

If our present church has not been taught how to love by God Himself, then maybe it’s time to look for another more welcoming, Spirit driven, loving body of believers. But we don’t like to make a fuss, so do we live without the essential teaching that only God can give? Or step out in courage and faith to another yes, imperfect church, but one that has embraced God’s teaching of love? Tough call within the church my friend, but so obvious to the eyes and ears of those outside!

Love and be Loved

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. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 1 John 4:18-20 NIV

One of the greatest things to experience in this life, if not the greatest, is to love, and to be loved. This common bond of love has to start in one person first before it can find its way to be returned. Remember your first, and possibly greatest love? One of you had to take the risk, and express that love first. The rest (as they say) is history!

Our verse puts it into perspective, and gets the timeline right. We are able to love, only because He loved us first. Think about it and let it sink in. Before we even knew anything about God or His presence, He loved us!

For those who have known the pure joy of a true bond of human love in this world, just think how much stronger and greater that love will be for our Saviour and all His loved ones, when we get to Heaven. We will see Him as He is, and know again that God really IS love! What a day that will be when we ultimately can “Love and be Loved”.

Missing, Presumed What?

It’s not very scientific or a mathematical equation, but it does carry some weight. Church is a body of caring believers who are real friends. Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another”, so we know this is important.

The real question is, how should we show it? The church body is made up of family members, friends we know well, and some we are slowly getting to know better. We are all on a journey of learning and faith, and therefore not all the same. There are extroverts and introverts, talkative and quiet, and those on the way for a short or long time. We do not all react to the same things in the same way, but we are all affected by a hurt or missing member of the body. Or we should be!

The temperature can be measured by how many out of this different group of people will not only realise you are missing from church, but essentially those who will take the time to let you know you were missed. It doesn’t mean half as much to be told the following week when you enter the church again. That’s easy and takes no effort or forethought. When you love someone, I mean really love them like your wife or child, you leave no doubt that you care enough to see that they are doing ok. It doesn’t matter if they are ill, or away for the day, after all you don’t know until you make that call.

It means a lot to know you have been missed, and for that message to come to you before the week is over, and next Sunday morning comes around. Equally, and perhaps even more so, it sends an opposite message when silence reigns and you are left with the question, who loves enough as a disciple to care? Here’s another thought. A cold body is usually a dying or dead body. What a sobering thought!