Christian love fosters a sense of belonging within God’s family and ensures everyone’s physical and spiritual needs are met.
Christian love (agape) is a broad concept covering many activities and behaviours. That is why love can be explained in various ways in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. It also explains why love sums up all of God’s Laws (Matthew 22:40 & Galatians 5:14) and, according to Colossians 3:14, is the bond that ties godly virtues together in unity. Additionally, love is an intrinsic part of God’s nature, character and being (1 John 4:8 &16). That means love originates from God and governs all He does. Since God is love, it makes sense that His family also be characterised as love and let it govern all they do.
Whenever local congregations are loving, they begin to thrive, become attractive and demonstrate to the world that they are followers of Christ.
Furthermore, Christian love fosters a sense of belonging within God’s family and ensures everyone’s physical and spiritual needs are met.
But how does Christian love build a sense of belonging within God’s family? I want to provide four answers to that question. These are:
1. It joins us together as God’s people.
There is a noticeable lack of Christian connection when love is absent in local congregations. As a result cliques and divisions often form, allowing assemblies to become a place full of hypocrisy, hurt, resentment, gossip and anger – all of which prevent churches from growing both spiritually and numerically. However, suppose each member chooses to seek what is best for each other. In that case, local church tend to unite and become places where each person ca reach their spiritual potential in Christ. In Colossians 2:2-3, Paul says, “My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that you may have the full riches of complete understanding.” (NIV)
Notice in the NIV translation that Paul says he wants the recipients of this letter to be united in love. The NASV and NKJV provide a slightly more nuanced understanding of unity. Both reveal that Paul wanted these people to be “knit together in love”. The NLV paraphrase goes one step further and says these Christians were to be “knit together by strong ties of love”. The word knit suggests actively joining and interlocking together various items or materials. Often this joining together is done so skilfully that you can barely notice the seam making the objects seem like one. In Colossians, Paul says something similar happens between members of God’s family when they love each other. That is, they become connected in a way that makes them seamlessly one. And obviously, when local congregations are joined together in this way, there is a strong sense of belonging.
2. It allows us to have a complete understanding of God’s wisdom.
We are not designed in Christ to be isolated from a relationship with other Christians. When we are baptised into Christ, we are added to the universal body of believers and provided a local congregation so that we can remain faithful, grow and contribute to the proper function of the Lord’s body. In Romans 12:5, Pauls writes that Christians “belong to each other”. Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Paul says that the “body is a unit though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” In other words, when we become Christians, God adds us to the church, gives us our roles and makes us dependent upon each other. As long as we keep working together, we will continue to come to a complete understanding of God’s wisdom, particularly as it is presented in Christ.
Unfortunately, it seems the recipients of Paul’s Colossian letter were in danger of veering towards false human ideas, redundant aspects of the Old Testament, false worship practices and needless ascetic spiritual activities. That is why Paul says to them:
– “I tell you this so that no-one will deceive you by fine-sounding arguments (v 4).”
– Not to be taken “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of the world” (v8).
–“…do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or Sabbath day” (v16).
– “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize (v18).”
– “Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
It seems these Christians were looking for wisdom in all the wrong places. If, however, they could see the value of what they had in Christ and were loving towards one another, they could find everything they were seeking. That’s why Paul in Colossians 2:2 says, “My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”.
Jesus is true wisdom, and Christian love is one of the keys to gaining that wisdom. One reason for this is that love allows us to listen to the various spiritual insights that God gifts each Christian. Love also enables us to engage in healthy debate and discussion and makes us more likely to change when we realise we have got things wrong. That makes the best and safest way to learn God’s will is in loving Christian communities. It also provides a sense belonging as we all learn together.
3. It allows us to be filled with God.
Preachers and teachers often quote Ephesians 3:20-21. In the passage, Pauls says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever! Amen.” One of the issues I have, when this verse is quoted, is that it is often used in reference to individuals. That is, God works amazingly through you and me as individual Christians. Of course, He can and does do that! However, if we consider the context, we soon realise that Paul is talking about God working through the community of Christ to do amazing things in the world. That is why Paul says, “to him be the glory in the church”. However, for God’s power to work in us to achieve great things requires that we be filled with Him. However, to be filled with God, the church needs to have a growing grasp of Christ’s love. However, we only get there through the Holy Spirit’s work, faith and love. Look at Ephesians 3:17, where Paul says, “…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And that you being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all saints, to grasp wide and long and high and deep is the love Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.”
Notice that is in on the basis of Christians loving each other, they have the opportunity to explore the dimensions of Christ’s love. As they explore these dimensions, they gain a sense of Christ’s love. In return, this understanding fills them completely with God.
Put simply, if local congregations fail to love, they will never be filled with God’s character, nature and therefore will not be used by Him to achieve anything. But if we love each other, He will use us in unique ways to impact this world. Experiencing God together in this way, leads to Christians feel a sense of belonging.
4. It helps us to mature in Godly virtues.
I am not a musician, but I have a guitar that I attempt to play now and again. However, sometimes when I pick it up and try to strum, I find it is drastically out of tune. Usually, this is because one of my children, my son is the biggest culprit, has played with the tuning pegs. Even though each string can sound good on its own, if the strings are in harmony, the overall noise can be horrid. To bring those strings back into tune with each other, I either use an electronic tuner or an app on my phone. Using these, I can quickly get each to sound great together. Love is much like my guitar tuners. It brings harmony to godly virtues and allows all these to work well at the same time together. In Colossians 3:12-14, Paul says, “Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
Notice that Paul says love binds all these virtues together in perfect unity. Love, therefore, allows different godly qualities to work in harmony with each. Without love, we may have elements of godliness but be we will be incomplete in Christ.
Love then allows us to bring forth all of the virtues of godliness into our relationships with other Christians and leads all to maturity. And, mature Christians experience a great sense of belonging to Christ and the local congregation where they are members.
Conclusion:
Christian love should characterise every single Christian and every local congregation. When we possess this type of love it builds within us a sense of belonging and therefore a sense of spiritual wellbeing. But how does it do this? By joining Christians together as God’s people. By allowing them to understand the wisdom of God better. By filling them with the fullness of God. And, by leading them live out in a mature way all all the virtues of godliness.
