Some friends and I were relating horror stories of how people in church have treated us. I was dumbfounded by the things other 'Christians' say to others. I am left with the conclusion that if church is not a place of LOVE then we should not have church. We should just seriously do away with it entirely.
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Now you could say, "You can't throw the baby out with the bath water. People in church aren't perfect." But look, my thinking is this: If you aren't learning to LOVE in church, then why do we go? If we are doing anything other than learning to love, WHAT IS THE POINT? We can have programs galore, massive attendance, great buildings with a coffee shop, but if at the end of the day people walk away being criticized, shamed, judged, or even cast out and rejected, WHY HAVE CHURCH?
Paul says I can give my body to the flames and go to my death and die as a martyr and if I don't have LOVE it is MEANINGLESS.
Perhaps we are worrying about doctrine, tithing, gifts, principles, teaching, singing, etc. etc. when really we should be learning about LOVE and practicing how to LOVE one another.
It is really quite simple.
1 John 4
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
