In the gospels of the New Testament, Jesus gives us two great commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
And who is our neighbor? Everyone we come into contact with. That’s the whole point of the parable of the good Samaritan, for example. Everyone, no matter who they are, no matter what they’ve done, is a worthy recipient of our love.
But there is one group of people on whom we are to focus our love: the church. Most of the New Testament is not written to an individual, nor is it written to a family. It is written to churches: a group of people in a specific locale who committed themselves to loving God and one another.
It’s impossible to tell this in English but every single “you” in the first chapter of one of those letters (1 Thessalonians) is not in the second person singular form, it’s second person plural. The MSV would translate verses 2-3 like this: “We give thanks to God always for all of y’all, constantly mentioning y’all in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father y’all’s work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Do you know what the MSV is? The Mississippi Standard Version of the Bible.
Paul says, “Y’all,” not “you.” The church has become increasingly unpopular in our country today, not just among unbelievers but also among Christians. Polls indicate more than half of all people who identify as believers say you can be a good Christian without being a part of a church.
Is that true? It all depends on what you mean by a good Christian. Of course, you can be saved without being a part of a church. All Protestants believe that.
But I think what most American Christians means when they say that is that they don’t have to commit their lives in any meaningful way to other believers in their community in order to faithfully follow the Lord Jesus.
That’s a very modern, American attitude. Modern Americans are the most commitment-phobic people on the planet. Now I realize some Christians have good reason to be wary of being a member of a local church, because they’ve been hurt by the church before. I fully recognize that.
But nothing glorifies God like Christians who live in the same community, and who aren’t related to one another by marriage or blood, committing their lives to one another in a local church and loving one another for years and years and years.
See, if you’re a Christian and on your own you’re faithfully loving your spouse, your kids, your friends, that’s great and people will see that and say, “You know, he’s a great guy. I think a lot of him.” You get the glory.
But when Christians come together in a city and commit their lives to one another and love another for years and years, people can’t just look at you anymore and be impressed. They realize something bigger is at work. They have to say, “These people aren’t related by blood or marriage, they don’t have a natural affinity, but they share their lives with one another and care for one another so well. God must be at work.”
Paul says in 1 Corinthians that when the church comes together for worship that’s when will an unbeliever will fall on his face, worship God and declare that God is really among them. When Christians commit themselves to one another in love, God gets the glory.
JD SHAW 