Daily Java: Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10)
Loving each other should be the mark of the church. It should be a place where people go to know that they will be accepted and loved.
I suppose the problem is that we feel the most ill at ease and the most judged at church. It really isn’t any wonder why people don’t want to go.
Church should be the place to get comfort and love, to get acceptance and sympathy for problems.
But it isn’t.
This is not to say that you can go to church and do anything you want to do and never have to worry about someone telling you that you are wrong. That's foolish.
But neither should you have to go and be constantly worried that people will find yet another fault with you.
Griping churches never grow, because no one wants to associate with a group of people who are constantly looking for faults.
When a church is constantly looking for faults, constantly trying to impose their will on others, continually complaining, that church will never grow, no matter who much lip service it may give to wanting to grow.
We can make church into a refuge if we will learn to honor each other and accept each other in spite of our faults.
That is the way the Lord wanted it. He never wanted a fault-finding institution.
People get enough of that in the world without having to come to church to get it too.
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)
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