You don’t have to ask many people to find out that I’m the one in my marriage who married up. My wife is smarter than me, more fun than me, friendlier than me, and much more godly than me. I lucked out in marrying her. It continues to baffle me that she willingly married me. Interestingly, I have similar thoughts about God choosing to save me. I was even less deserving of God’s saving grace than I was of Meraiah’s hand in marriage. However, the many “but God” passages in the Bible apply to me. If you follow Jesus, this is also true for you!
It’s pretty easy to love someone when we feel loved by them. Jesus says just this in Luke 6. “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.” God loves the world. That’s pretty all-encompassing, but that is certainly true of those who follow Him. Over the course of following Jesus, fellow Christians, especially the ones we’re closest to (relationally or geographically), can feel more like our enemies than the true enemies of God feel like our enemies. Sometimes that’s their fault, sometimes it’s our own, usually, it’s a combination of both.
Jesus goes on to tell His followers to love their enemies “and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return”. Now remember, Jesus was saying this to His followers, many of whom would likely be gruesomely killed for professing faith in Him.
Is Jesus telling me to be a doormat? Who qualifies as my enemy? Who does Jesus say His enemies are?
Jesus wasn’t a doormat, but he also wasn’t belligerent. He did a lot more forgiving and healing than flipping tables. Jesus wasn’t deluded into thinking His Bride (the church) was flawless (in the same way Meraiah definitely doesn’t think I’m flawless). If He thought His people were doing fine, His suffering and death would’ve been a complete waste. His first disciples were a ragtag bunch of largely uneducated and dirty sheep.1 When you hear about Jesus’ ragtag first followers, do you identify more with Jesus looking at the ragtag bunch or with one of the ragtag disciples? There have been times in my life when I’ve identified more as Jesus there. That is the wrong takeaway. I am no one’s savior; I need a savior. When I put myself as Jesus there, I inch myself closer to God’s role and away from my dirty coworkers. That’s dangerously sinful territory, which often leads to self-righteousness shrouded in compassion.
In sports, your teammates aren’t determined by how well they play but by whose jersey they wear. The same is true in Christ’s kingdom. (This is good for me. Growing up, my sports teams probably thought I was playing for the other team…) This must apply within the global body of Christ. The church is not our enemy. Not because we belong to the same club. I often have more in common with non-Christians than Christians. You and I don’t determine our team. Nor do we determine our teammates. “28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”2 We are on the same team because Jesus died for me, you, and all of the other Christians. He paid the debt. He adopted. He loves. He is King.
We don’t have the authority to see a person or a group of Christians as an enemy. God is more aware of their sin (and your sin) than you are. In His infinite wisdom and love, He redeemed the people in the church from their sin. That includes you and me. Jesus knows His bride is sinful. Jesus loves her (us) anyway. We shouldn’t be less gracious than Jesus Himself is. In this way, we should ask God to shape our hearts to be like His.
Let’s be careful to note that identifying as a Christian is different from following Christ. There are plenty of card-carrying Christians who don’t bear good fruit.3 They ignore, condone, or even celebrate sin. What they teach is fundamentally opposed to Jesus’ teachings. God does not call us to approach these people as Christians. But remember, He died for His true Bride, who is sinful. Very sinful. Wretchedly, painfully, sinful. Sinful in ways that are sometimes worse than the world.4 Brothers and sisters, we can’t condemn who God has redeemed.
The church is not just the means to the end; the church is God’s people. The global church is His entire people currently living on this Earth. The local church is the gathering of Christians in a given geographic location. This is where a little bit (but not too much) Greek will open a big door of understanding. Ekklesia5 (pronounced “ekklēsía”, Strongs G1577) is the original word that is often translated as “church.” Ekklesia was not first a religious word. It first described the citizens of a given small community who would assemble for fellowship and deliberation, think of a neighborhood cookout. I live in Warrensburg. We have a city council. Can you imagine Warrensburg citizens’ response if someone from Sedalia tried to join the Warrensburg City Council? There would be an uproar! Not because people in Sedalia are horrible and people in Warrensburg are righteous. Simply because Warrensburg isn’t that person’s community. This directly applies to Jesus’ picture of the local church.
I believe Jesus was very careful with how He worded things; using Ekklesia is no exception. Jesus wants us to be in a local body of believers. In today’s transient society, it feels almost hyper-local. We choose which phone we want, which show to watch, and we travel hours and hours to find our spouse (no judgment here, I traveled five hours). This opportunity for selection has cheapened our view of Jesus’ call for Christians to be assembled and in community. We can usually choose whether we live in Seattle or Warrensburg. In Jesus’ day, they didn’t usually have that option. They would often live and die near where they were born. They didn’t have the option for cheap community, surface-level church relationships, nor could they escape the assembly when they were frustrated by all of the sinners. God designed deep love and commitment to each other to have a payoff: reciprocal commitment and love. We love because Jesus first loved. When we love the people who make up the church, we receive love. The system isn’t perfect, not yet. But. God promises that He’s sanctifying more than just you and me. Lean into the broken bride.
If you read this far, hopefully you don’t think I’m advocating that the church is without problems. I went through a multi-year cage-stage period in which I ruthlessly critiqued every church I came across (usually in my head, but not always). I still hold to many of the convictions I did at that time, but I pray there is a significant difference in my attitude. Paul in Ephesians 4:15 directly tells Christians in the church to speak truth in love to one another so we can look more like Christ. Take a minute and reread Ephesians 4:1-16. “Grace was given to each of us…”6 God is concerned about sin within His bride, but He’s equally concerned with how we deal with that sin. “And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.”7 Let’s not ourselves sin when admonishing a brother or sister.
Loving Jesus but not His bride isn’t possible. I either love Jesus and His bride, or I don’t love Jesus by not loving His bride. Jesus died for His bride, the people who make up the church, because He loves her and wants her to be near.
If you struggle to love the Bride of Christ, regularly devote yourself to prayer, asking God to make your heart see His bride as He sees her: redeemed.
Resources:
https://www.crossway.org/articles/can-you-love-jesus-but-not-the-church
- https://www.gotquestions.org/sheep-in-the-Bible.html ↩︎
- Galatians 3:28 (ESV) ↩︎
- Matthew 7:15-20, 1 John 2:19 ↩︎
- 1 Corinthians 5:1-2 ↩︎
- https://www.gotquestions.org/definition-ekklesia.html ↩︎
- Ephesians 4:7b (ESV) ↩︎
- Galatians 6:1b (NLT) ↩︎
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