Doug Van Pelt

Love One Another

I was listening to a CD of the New Testament (I think it's called The Experience, I can't remember) with my dad on the way into work this morning. We listened to the disc with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John (it's a 25-minute commute) and enjoyed its message.

"Love one another" is a common theme. It talked about loving other believers. I think of the friends I have that have walked away from the Lord. I think one of the things they probably did early on is stop loving fellow believers. Maybe John knew that and that's why he preached that message over and over and over again.

The first stage is getting angry and indignant over something really goofy or stupid that a fellow believer does. Somehow that goes unchecked (no one is there to remind them not to judge or they don't even try to understand that person's heart) and turns into "un-love." Then they develop cynicism and don "cynic glasses" and tend to see a lot of believers with mistrust, cynicism and judgment. It can happen to any of us, myself included, of course.

Losing fellowship and distancing ourselves isolates us and makes us vulnerable to "the walk" (as in walking away from God).

I actually believe that we might as well curse at God, drop the f-bomb and the middle finger in His face ... if we're going to walk away from Him. If we're going to ignore or blow God off, we might as well go all the way and verbalize our heart's actions (and speak forth hatred/disbelief), putting flesh on our self-imposed enmity. I think it's a more honest action to coincide with the heart that ignores Him. I guess I look at the extremes of love and hatred, where I would put apathy right up there with hatred ... or I'd at least encourage the apathetic one to start hating, because the result is the same in the end -- broken relationship.

I guess one point Don Miller keeps making is true: this Christianity thing is meant to be lived in community. Something about the way we're wired makes us dependent upon others. There is a part of all of us that hates that, that resists that, that wishes we could just "do it all" on our own.

Chad Kroeger of Nickelback laughed at me over the phone when I made a statement like, "Every one I know that's stopped going to church has munched it in their spiritual life." It can easily be interpreted as: "If you don't go to church, you stop being a Christian." I guess I believe that to be true, although it is a different measurement for everyone. Some people have more tolerance and strength than others, and God gives us grace and strength at certain times when we need it. If we have to walk through a jungle or don't have fellowship for 40 days at a time, that's okay. It's when one week becomes two and then four and one month becomes six and before you know it, we don't "belong" or "live" in/with a church anymore.

Maybe a good analogy is like food/nutrients and vitamins. We need them. They are preventative medicine. Fellowship is like that. It keeps us healthy.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at January 4, 2007 09:40 AM