How well are you loving your church?

The last few days I’ve been thinking about 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians is a letter from Paul, Silas and Timothy to the church in Thessalonica. These three men traveled far and wide sharing the gospel and starting gatherings of believers. They are among the first when it comes to missionary work and church planting. They wrote to encourage and instruct believers after they left their areas. 

In their first letter to the Thessolonians, they instruct and encourage on a number of matters - work, death, trials and even the returning of Jesus. If you read carefully though something else sticks out: their love for the people of God. Over and over they talk about how grateful they are for them, how they pray for them and how they long to see them. These declarations of love are packed into the first 3 chapters. 

It starts in 1 Thess. 1:2-3: We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the next two chapters we see these statements (among others):

2:8 …we loved you so much…

2:17 …out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you…

2:20  Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

3:7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith.

3:9-10 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

3:11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 

My question to the church leader reading those words is this: Are those your thoughts/feelings/actions in regards to the people of God? How well are you loving the church?

Do you long to be with them? Do you love being around them? Are you encouraged by their faith? Are you praying for them continually? Are you proud of and encouraged by the way they have faced persecution? Do they bring you joy? Do you even know what’s going on in their lives?

IF NOT… I’d encourage you to spend more time around your church. Listen to their stories of faith. Look for what God has done in them, through them and around them. Pray for them by name. Be more intentional. Learn to love them. 

I’ve spent all of my adult life (and some of my life before that) involved in ministry. Many reading this have too. If you’ve been around anything that long (you name the activity, industry, etc), you can become frustrated or jaded. I’ve seen a lot of that lately from leaders. If you find yourself there, I encourage you to read 1 Thessalonians. See how the fathers of our faith loved the people of God. Pray the Lord would show you how to love them too. 

If the world will know we are Christ’s by how we love one another (John 13:35), then we ought to make that a priority.