He who has been forgiven much loves much

The church can be described as a surface made up of many different tiles, with each tile representing a person in the church. Each tile emits a colour of light, each affects surrounding tiles, and the effect is what the world sees. The church needs to be bright white light warning people of danger and guiding them to safety. The devil and the world have made this difficult. We are also prone to compromise and we are weak, but even so.

The church is a serious testament. It is the interpretation of the love of God by human beings. We know that the powers of hell will not prevail against it (her). We know also that the Kingdom of God exists in the hearts and minds of believers. But do we know the love that God has for us as human beings? In the last days the love of many will grow cold as or when inequity increases. Is this, however, the only reason that the love of many will grow cold? I suspect that it isn’t.

The mission of the church is plainly stated: go and make disciples of all the nations. What happens when we get saved? Is the soil of our hearts such that we patiently do our part so that the great commission is accomplished? Or do we open the Bible, read the promises, the wonderful promises that are true for us personally, and not allow the truth of Christ’s love for us to enter into our hearts and then be transmitted into the hearts of others? This is certainly a problem for me!

Why is this? Is it because I read statements like “you are all sons in Christ Jesus” and infer that my duty lies in his being pleased with me and not with my being pleased with him; with what he has done for me on the cross and by his resurrection, what he says to me in his word, and what he is doing for me now in prayer on my behalf; and subsequently allowing this truth to affect the way I behave and the way I treat other people? Or is it because I read part of the scriptural truth and neglect the part that requires something from me, whether it be personal sacrifice or my time, or charitable giving, or any act of love?

The church is not the only expression of God’s love on planet earth, but it is the preponderant one in terms of salvation of souls. We are clearly instructed that people will not hear that God loves them unless they are told, and we are further convinced that we have been sent into the world to do this if we have faith to believe what the Bible says, but if, for example, we are convinced that one sin, or one sinner, is worse than another, how are we as a body expected to reach those who are caught up in the particular sin that we have condemned as being more pernicious than the rest? With difficulty!

The answer should be quite simple. Do not judge. Leave that to God. I read an interesting book called “The Shack” and there is a passage in the book about judgement which stresses that we don’t know where the buck stops. The Bible confirms this: our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they knew best. We don’t know everyone’s story but we do, surely, know that there is a reason why people treat people badly and that if one of those people turns to God that he will show mercy to that person, that heaven rejoices, and that the person that God died for has returned home and also that the mission of the church has stepped closer to completion.

Do not look down on these who believe in him; watch that one of these who believe in him does not fall into sin; look after each other so that no one misses the grace of God. Look out for each other. Each one must carry his own burden, sure, but don’t forget the beginning of the paragraph: carry each other’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ!

Do you know that God loves you? Can you express that love effectively to the world? What does it mean to love someone else? The scripture that has been going through my mind is that “this is real love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” It really is down to you and me to understand his love for us. Do we think that our own righteousness is enough to save us? Or that the proverbial tower did not fall on us because we are righteous or special in some way? We must be careful.

Of him who has been given much, much will be required. Is it a small thing that we are saved? Do we need to find the scriptures that say, essentially, that no one, not you nor me, can do anything to save themselves from sin and there is no price big enough to buy a person’s soul save the redemptive work of Jesus? As we work out our salvation in fear and trembling, we really need to see the “big” stuff in perspective and all the things which we assume to be trivial in a similar manner, don’t we?