Contending with Loveless Churches (Part 1)

"A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13: 34, ESV).

The Complacent Believer's Relationship with God

The spiritual condition of today`s church is not good. Even in the personal lives of individual Christians they are better known for their worldliness than their godliness. Many have personal struggles that reveal a lack of faith in a God who has redeemed them. Why are we Christians not better examples for Christ? Noted British author Selwyn Hughes wrote this interesting but challenging observation about many Christians today:

"Many Christians are not good samples of the faith we profess. We claim that the focus of our lives has been shifted from ourselves to God, yet we are chronically selfish still. We talk of the first grace being humility, but we are so proud. We speak about a peace that passes all understanding, and yet we are restless within. We claim to be children of the King, yet we walk around feeling inferior. We say that perfect love casts out all fear, yet we are as fearful as the next person. We pray daily and ask God to forgive our trespasses "as we forgive those who trespass against us", but still harbour resentments and are no strangers to bitterness.

We affirm we have a divine Father who has numbered the hairs of our head and is watching over us all the time for good, and yet we worry over everything. John Wesley once said that he could no more worry than he could curse or swear. Many of us, myself included, are not quite there yet. I wonder why? We may not swear, philander, steal, get drunk, or commit gross sins, but neither do thousands of other people who make no claim to be Christians.

It is a terribly challenging question I am about to ask: What does our Christianity do for us? Are we nullifying the Christian message by contradicting by our demeanour the very truths we try to get across to others? If Christians by definition are people in whom Christ lives, then ought we not to be showing more evidence that the risen Christ is alive in us?" (Every Day With Jesus: The Surprises of God, Day 158).

This above quote from Selwyn Hughes is so fitting to what I am about to say about our relationship with God. I believe the problem why many saints are selfish, fearful, resentful, and bitter is due to the fact that our hearts are not in right relationship with God. Many believers are afraid to draw near to God because it might cost them something, and that something is "change." It is common for many Christians today to not even read their Bibles, pray, and think on spiritual things concerning God for weeks on end, yet still call themselves Christians and attend a local Church. Such supposed Christians fail to realize that our life reflects to others our relationship with God. If we have honestly cultivated a close relationship with God as we say we have, then a change would be very evident in our lives. The Apostle Paul’s words would be true of us, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5: 17). However, the sad reality is that for many supposed Christians they want a relationship with God that does not require change or sacrifice on their part. They want both the world in their hearts as well as their relationship with Lord Jesus Christ. The truth is the "worldliness" in their hearts will always crowd Christ out! “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6: 24). Concerning believers who have a worldly spirit, John says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2: 15).

Why is it that whenever we say that we are going to put God first, we always end up putting our time with God on the back seat. Could it be possible that perhaps some of us never really trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour? For many of us, if we are honest, do not have a close relationship with God. We are often still infants in the faith who still need milk, because we are unable to chew on the meat of God's Word (see 1 Cor. 3: 2; Heb. 5: 12-14). This explains why there is so much carnality within the Church: many believers are not Christ like in their behaviour because they have not taken the time to get to KNOW Christ. As we draw near to God He draws near to us, then through knowledge and experience in our walk with Christ we learn and grow in wisdom. Only when we cultivate a close relationship with the Lord Jesus are we able to properly love again, to truly LOVE the Church in a Christ like way. John says, "Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth...The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love...We love, because He first loved us" (1 John 3: 18; 4: 8, 19).