the language of family. The church is
the bride of Christ; the church is the
family of God; the saints are brothers
and sisters; older men in the church
are fathers and younger men are
sons; older women are mothers and
younger women are daughters. This
is a language of family: a significant
and unalterable relationship. You
don’t see family as a means to an
end. You don’t stay in your family
because they do everything right
and never disappoint you. In fact,
it’s quite the opposite. You love your
family because of their strengths and
despite their weakness. You just love
them…because they are yours.
When Jesus saved us, He did
not just save us out of sin, death
and judgment. More than that, He
saved us into His family and into His
Kingdom. When Jesus saved you
and me, He saved us into His family
and saved us for life in His family. The
church God has brought you to is
now, through His blood, your family.
You belong to your church like you
belong to your earthly family. Our
earthly families are bound by blood,
by marriage and by adoption. Our
spiritua l families are bound by the
same realities! Only, in Christ, we are
bound together by a more precious
blood, united through a more perfect
union, and brought near by His
glorious adoption.
Consider your earthly family for
a moment. How does God wants
you to think and feel about them -
through the lens of love, optimism,
encouragement and faith? Or, should
we focus on the weakness, the
failures, and the ways our own needs
are being left unfulfilled? God wants
us to fight to LOVE the families He
has given us, both our physical family
and our spiritual family (the church).
I’m not saying there isn’t a time for
correction or for challenge. Even in
our earthly families, correction and
challenge must occur in order for the
family to be healthy, but the secret
to a great family is having a tone of
encouragement and optimism, even
through those instances of faiure and
correction.
There are different kinds of
weakness that move us toward
different kinds of action. If a church
is teaching contrary to Scripture, or
acting in a way that is perverse or
unholy, the LOVING thing to do is
share concern and move toward
correction, but those are NOT the
kind of weaknesses I have in mind
now. Most of our challenges to LOVE
our churches come from weaknesses
in process, execution, or even
capacity. If we operate our families
like service providers, they simply
Most of our challenges to love our
churches come from weaknesses in
process, execution, or even capacity.
Solutions 7