Apologetics

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How healthy is your church? I hope your church is healthy and strong, but unfortunately many churches today display some very unhealthy signs. In fact if we look back at the beginning of the church it was just 96 years following the birth of the Church that the revelation of Jesus Christ was given to the apostle John on the isle of Patmos. In this revelation Jesus gave John the seven letters to the churches in Asia to describe their current condition. The first letter was to the church at Ephesus and Jesus reveals to John that He was finding the church condition good in several ways, but He had somewhat against the church…it had left it’s first love. This is when the early church began to show a lack of strength, and it is why the church today is in trouble. Love is the strength of the Church!

During Jesus’ earthly ministry He was questioned by the Pharisees. The Pharisees were extremely religious and had over 600 laws written for a devout Pharisee to follow. Although they followed the laws to a tee, they never reached up to people or made sure all of God’s creation were being cared for. They followed the laws for one reason…to make sure they were going to heaven. One day a Pharisee lawyer asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was? Jesus reminds the Pharisees in His answer and throughout the Gospels that following the law is not what it is all about. Jesus answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with thy mind; and they neighbor as thyself”. It is not just about you and your salvation, but it is about making Christ known by showing the world the same love that Christ showed us. Christianity is not about following rules and regulations: It is about living out our faith; It is about helping our neighbor; It is about welcoming all; It is about Love!

What do these commandments mean?

A man who loves God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength will never take God’s name in vain, nor will he ever place anything above God in his affections.

A man who loves his neighbor as himself won’t lie to him, nor steal from him, or cheat him out of his possessions. When a man loves his neighbor as himself he won’t do anything intentionally to hurt him.

These elements are increasingly rare in our society. We tend to live with the attitude of extreme privacy even though we are only separated a few yards from our neighbor. Society increasingly acts as if men owe nothing to their neighbors. We think only of our own lives, ignoring the needs of others. But all moral responsibility hinges on these two affections…Loving God and Loving Each Other!

Love For God.

God isn’t just someone we worship and serve. He is someone we know. We have a relationship with Him. He has shared His life with us. Our relationship with Him must be a loving relationship and Jesus describes how we are to love Him.

We are to love Him “with all thy heart”. To love God with all our heart means to love Him passionately. The heart speaks of emotion and we are to be emotional in our relationship with God. There are times our emotions cause us to laugh out loud with God. There are times our emotions cause us to cry before God, knowing He understands our sorrow. There are times our emotions cause us to shout and rejoice with Him. We must keep our relationship with God emotional to keep the relationship from becoming routine. Loving God with all our heart also speaks of exclusiveness. We must love God enough to make our first spiritual loyalty to Him and not the love of music, preaching, or fellowship.

We are to love Him “with all thy soul”. To love God with all our soul speaks of intimacy. We all communicate on different levels. You don’t bare as much of your soul with a stranger as you do a friend. You are more intimate with your family than with anyone else. God wants us to love Him with all our soul, on the deepest level of intimacy, holding nothing back. We don’t have to be afraid to be ourselves when we are worshiping and talking with God. We need not worry about what others think. We don’t have to put on a mask or assume a false character when we come into the presence of God. God wants to change our lives, but He can’t do that until we are honest about what is inside. How can He remove a fear or deliver us from bitterness if we won’t admit to it?

We are to love Him “with all thy strength”. To love God with all our strength means to love Him expressively. We need to love God in a way that demonstrates our love. When we love expressively, with our strength, it makes us want to do something. The greatest example of this is God’s own love. “For God so loved the world that He done something”….He gave! We know God loves us because of Calvary. There God made the supreme sacrifice of Love, and there can never be a greater expression or demonstration of love. What can we say we do to express or demonstrate our love to Him and to each other?

We are to love Him “with all thy mind”. We are to love Him intelligently. This statement helps us avoid extremes and keeps us balanced. Emotion must be balanced with Truth. We must think about why we love Him. We must be intelligent and mindful of the Scriptures and be governed by them.

In Jesus’ answer to the Pharisee lawyer He is reminding us that we are to love God the same way He loves us. We must not respond to God’s whole-hearted love in a half-hearted manner. We are to love Him with All the heart, All the soul, All the strength, and All the mind.

Love for others.

If you were asked how you should love your neighbor you would probably give the right answer…you are to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Loving your neighbor means that you do for him whatever you would do for yourself. When you have a need, you try to meet it. When you have a hurt, you attempt to heal it. When you have a responsibility, you attempt to fulfill it. When you have a prayer request, you pray for it. We don’t have to be taught to love ourselves, it comes naturally. The trick is to keep self-love from becoming selfishness.

There are some questions to ask ourselves that will assist in loving our neighbor.

Do you find yourself judging the worth of a man before you decide whether or not you are going to help him?

Do you only feel comfortable helping those who are just like you?

Do you check the appearance of others before deciding if you want to help them?

Loving your neighbor requires action. It is not enough to be concerned. It is not enough to feel compassion. You have to get involved. You have to invest some time and sometimes possessions. You have to do whatever it takes to take care of your neighbor, just as you do whatever it takes to take care of yourself.

The Apostle Paul tells us in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians what love truly is.

Love suffereth long; it is patient.

Love is kind.

Love envieth not.

Love vaunteth not itself; it is not boastful or arrogant or rude.

Love does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own; it does not insist on it’s own way.

Love is not easily provoked; it is not irritable or resentful.

Love thinketh no evil; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.

Love beareth all things.

Love believes all things.

Love hopes all things.

Love endures all things.

Love never fails; it never ends.

This is what the Greatest Commandment is and that is what the Church needs to go back to. This is what the Church needs to Remember…then Repent for getting away…then Return…get back to living out the Great Commandment and showing the world. Loving God first, then loving each other! All other moral rules will be directly related to these commandments.

If you want to keep the church strong all Christians must take these commandments seriously and apply them to their lives.

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