BCM/D Annual

This past week I was teaching my youth at Summit Trace Church the importance of loving one another as Christians. It sounds like an easy concept, treating other believers as the person they are in Christ. But if we were being honest with each other, I think we’d begin to see how untrue that can be.

We were made to live in community with one another, to love one another as Christ loves us. But we live in a world where it’s easier to fall into the temptation of treating others on the standards of humans rather than God’s standards. We are supposed to clothe ourselves in kindness, gentleness, humility and patience like Colossians 3:12 says. But oftentimes in church-family settings we fall prey to ugliness.

What does ugliness in the church look like? I’ve seen too many people in Christian communities treat each other without the kind of love Jesus commands for us to have for one another. I’ve witnessed the ugliness that can happen to a body of believers. It could be as simple as choosing only to look at someone’s faults and shortcomings or as serious as passing harsh judgment instead of showing accountability and grace. We’re not immune to the gossip, fighting, anger, misrepresentation, or hiding our feelings. In fact, sometimes those things can become intensified in churches. But it should be the opposite.

If you read on in Colossians 3 you’ll find that Jesus calls us first to live these characteristics of God and secondly to be forgiving of our fellow brothers and sisters. He knows we’re going to fall. He knows that even though this list of actions we’ve been given looks pleasant on paper, we as people are going to stumble. So He gives us the recipe to fix that. It’s called forgiveness.

The problem with grace is that even though we know we don’t deserve it, we expect it. We expect people to forgive us faster than we are willing to forgive others when they have wronged us. When we are unwilling to forgive other believers, the world takes notice. The world sees how we treat one another and the world starts to form their own opinions on what it means to follow Jesus.

We have to take back the message of Jesus and help people to understand what it’s truly saying. We have to start by connecting to one another with the only thing worth basing relationships on, and that’s Jesus. If we share nothing else, we share His grace and His sacrifice.

How have you witnessed ugliness in the church? What reactions have you seen within non-believers as a result of ugliness? How can we start loving one another better?

My challenge today is for you to examine those relationships in which you have not forgiven, or where another follower has not forgiven you. What is stopping you from showing them grace? How can you reconnect based solely on your shared fellowship in Christ?