This article is intended for men of doctrine. Men with ecclesiastical opinions. Those who think the Bible provides advice on practices and ways to structure the church.
Wait a second, I’m talking about me and all of us at Marks, and maybe you. I thank God for your life and am happy to consider myself a partner with you in the work for the kingdom of Christ.
- However.
- I have noticed that you and I are sensitive to a kind of temptation: we can love more our vision of what a church should look like than the people who make it up.
- One can be like a single man.
- Who likes the idea.
- Of a woman.
- But who marries a real woman and discovers that it is harder to love the real woman than the imaginary woman; or as a mother who loves her dream of having a perfect daughter more than hers.
There is an implicit danger here for all of us who have learned a great lot from books, conventions, and ministries about “healthy churches”; who, by the way, are welcome. We began to love the idea of a healthy church without the church in which God put us.
I remember, by chance, hearing an old man complain because a family had allowed his son, not yet baptized, to receive food from the Lord, when the plate of communion bread had passed among the people on the benches, what surprised me was the tone used. by the eldest. It was disappointing and derogatory, as if he were saying, How could they do that?Those idiots?! But these people were sheep who had not been educated, obviously, did not know that they should not do that, and God had given them this old man, not to complain about them, but to love them and bring them to a greater degree of understanding. At the time, it seemed that the old man liked his own vision of a biblical church more than these people.
And how easy it is to react like this old man
What I don’t mean
I do not want to say that we should love people and forget everything related to the health of the church, as if these two things could be separated, nor do I say that we must put the love and the Word of God in a ring, in order to argue Loving someone is wishing them well, and only God can define what is “good”. Loving the church means, in part, wanting it to grow in all that God defines as good. It’s wanting your church to grow in a biblical direction.
Simply put, if you love your children, you’ll want them to be healthy.
So what do I mean when I say we should love the church more than the health of the church?
Back to the gospel
When Christ died for the church, he made it his property and identified with it. He gave him his name, so chasing the church is tantamount to persecuting Christ (Acts 9. 5), and siding against a Christian is sin against Christ (1 Corinthians 8. 12; cf. 6. 15). We represent Christ, individually or as a body.
Think about what that means. This means that Christ gave his name to immature Christians and Christians who speak a lot in church assemblies, to Christians who are wrong to offer communion to their undated children, and to Christians who love superficial songs of praise. Christ identifies with Christians whose theology is underdeveloped and imperfect. It refers to those who mistakenly oppose the structures of biblical leadership and the discipline of the church and say, “These are my representatives. Is sin against them a sin against me?”
How broad, long, tall and deep is the love of Christ!He covers a multitude of sins and accepts the sinner; In fact, not only does he accept the sinner, but he also values his glory as a sinner, my name will rest on them, and my glory will belong to them.
We should always go back to the gospel, right?
Pastor, give yourself and not yourself
A theologian helped me understand the difference between giving and giving, when I give myself to you, in general, I give what I have: my wisdom, my joy, my goods or my strength, and it makes sense that I do not. I risk anything in this process, because I am praised for giving these things away, in fact, I can give everything I have, even my own body to burn, and have no love, yet when I give myself up, I not only give that I possess, but I give my whole being, I identify my being with your being. I’m starting to pay attention to your own name and reputation because I see them related to myself. Every glory I have will be yours, and every glory you receive is the glory that makes me happiest, for it is also my glory!
This is how we should love one another in church, because this is how Christ loved us. We don’t just accept each other; But we value each other in the same way that we value each other. We share the glories and sorrows of others. If one member suffers, all suffer; And if one of them is honored, do they all rejoice with him? (1 Cor 12:26). We consider ourselves superior to ourselves (Phil 2: 1-11). In fact, we have received the same surname and now we are brothers (Mt 12. 50; Eph 2. 19; etc. ). If you insult my brother, you will insult me. If you let my brother down, you will let me down. Nothing is a question for the church. Everything becomes a personal matter, because the Gospel is personal. Christ died for you, Christian; died for me; so that we can be his representatives and be like him (yes, he is still the ultimate goal of the love we have for one another, just as his love was given to us to love the Father, the ultimate goal of Christ’s love) . And if all Christians want to love in this way, pastors and elders must also love.
To say that we must love the Church more than her health means this: that we must love people because they belong to the gospel, not because they keep the law of a healthy church, even if that law is good and biblical. we must love them for what Christ did and said, not for what they do.
If you love your children, you want them to be healthy, but if you love your children, you’ll still love them, whether they’re healthy or not.
It makes sense that you can rejoice when a brother or sister grows up in theological understanding. You can rejoice in the greatest unity you share now, indeed coming from God (see 2 John 1). But your Christian love? Modeled on the love of Christ, who died for us, still being sinners?It must also extend to the immature in its theology, ecclesiology and morality, because this love is based on the perfection and truth of Christ, not on perfection and truth. of his brother.
Pastor, if your church is full of weak believers, you should still identify with them as strong. Maybe you are more comfortable with like-minded people? (A popular term used among retirees); with mature brothers who share the same theology as you. It’s okay. But what if this brother of the theological spirit? Do you want to share the same contempt that you feel for these brothers who are “less theological”? And more immature, we must say: “My son, you are always with me; all that is mine is yours. However, we had to rejoice and rejoice, because your brother had died and risen, lost and found (Lk 15, 31-32 ).
Old man, love your flock as your sons and daughters; Hop on the stands of their lives and appease them as they score their goals, as well as the days when they stagger on the field, exhausted, in their joy and sadness, as in their own joy or sadness Tolerate their madness. Don’t feel threatened when you’re despised, pay the curse with blessing. Remember that getting rid of sin in your heart is a slow process and you won’t always be able to help yourself. Be patient like the one who’s been patient with you.
Or, to use a different biblical metaphor, don’t you think your love for your church should be the kind of love you love: in joy or sadness, in wealth or poverty, in health or sickness, even that’s not a love?love for the genre until death do us part, shouldn’t you take care of the church the same way you take care of your own body, because that’s how Christ loved you and me?
That’s how Paulo liked it
That’s how Paul loved churches. He gave himself up, not just himself. Did you tell the Philippians they were yours?(Ph 4. 1). He said the same thing to the Thessalonikis (1 Tes. 2, 19).
Pastor, do you consider the stubborn believers of your church and those who have a simplistic theology as if they were your joy and crown?Paul refers to churches as? Your source of pride?(2 Co. 1. 14; cf. 2 Ts 1. 4) Do you act like this?
He told the Corinthians that they were his children and that, by the gospel, he was their father (1 Cor. 4. 14-15); and he had the same feeling about the Galatians, Timothy and Theta (Gal 4,19; 1 Tim 1,2; Tim 1,4).
Old man, have you associated your name and reputation with your church, just as a father does with your son?
How common it is to hear words of love and desire from Paul’s mouth!He opens his heart a lot and longs to see the churches do the same (2 Corinthians 6:12-13). He wants to see and be with the believers (Rom 1:11; Fil 4. 1; 1 Ts 3. 6; 1 Ti 1:4); they lack the same affection that Christ has shown them (Fel 1:8). He knew that their tribulation was for them, salvation and comfort, and that their comfort was for their comfort (2:1. 6). Paul did not give himself to them, keeping himself a little for himself, as Ananiah and Safira did, he gave himself up.
Paul not only liked mature believers in this way. Read their epistles and you will soon remember how sick many of these churches were.
May the Spirit of God increase our love, that we may imitated Paul, as he imitated Christ.