When "Church" ≠ "Love"

I have been hurt.  By Christians. By the people that are called the church. I have my fair share of stories of unfair, unloving and downright mean ways the church has treated my family and I.   I make sure to read posts when they come down my newsfeed about how the  Church/Christians fail or are not doing things right, so that I can feel justified in my “hurt” after all there are a lot of people out there with the same hurts, frustrations and anger at what we see the church has become.

Then last week at small group we were picking apart Ephesians and we came across this verse:

¹⁵ That is why, ever since I heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and of the love you have for Christians everywhere,   Ephesians 1:15 TLB

It stopped me for a minute.  Paul was commending the Church, the body of believers, the people that attended one of the churches in Ephesus, for the rumors he was hearing about their strong faith and love for Christians everywhere. 

Now most of times, we, the hurt,  would take that verse and want to try and make it about how the church or church staff aren’t doing its job…

“Paul would have never written this to (Insert Church name)….”

“That’s what I have been saying (insert Pastor’s name) doesn’t show love….”

“That ministry should be doing things differently to show love…”

But what if you were to stop and ask yourself, like I did, “Would Paul have written that to me?”  Would he have heard about my faith and how I love Christians everywhere? 

No.

Not even a little bit.

I have been frustrated with the Church. I have been frustrated with Church People. I would rather blast different Churches for their differing beliefs, their 

shortcomings, and their mistakes, especially if they hurt me.

This verse challenged me.

I want to be like the people Paul was writing to.

So I asked myself-

What would it look like if we the Church extended Grace to each other? If we lived in humility knowing we all fall way short. What would it look like if each one of us that make up the Church, loved each other through the hurts, the disagreements about programs and wall colors, the bad choices and mistakes? What if we forgave freely, like Christ has forgiven us?  What if we loved each other like Christ loved us, unconditionally, even when it doesn’t make sense or doesn’t feel good.

What if?

Author:
Heather Wilson
Co-Founder GiveSendGo.com