Go Deeper With GodExemplo

GOING IT ALONE

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

—1 John 4:20

“I love Jesus but I’m just not into church.”

“I can’t handle other Christians.”

“God and I have something worked out and we’re OK if I don’t go to church.”

Have you ever heard a Christian say something like that? It seems these days that a lot of Jesus’ followers are following Him on their own, rather than together.

Now, at a basic level your faith is your faith alone and that’s good and true.

But is God simply saving individuals or building a family?

Jesus called us to love one another as we love ourselves (John 15:12), and the Bible urges us to continue to be in the habit of meeting together to encourage and support one another (Hebrews 10:24–25). So when you embrace Jesus and commit to following His teaching, meeting with your fellow Christians is a good thing—even if it might be uncomfortable sometimes.

In fact, 1 John 4:20 puts it very bluntly: “If anyone says, ‘I love God’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”

Are local churches perfect? Nope. Do local churches have problems? Yep. Have people ever had problems in the local church? Way too many! Is the church about my needs and me? Not a bit. Is church about placing value on God and His desire to see you build strong communities of faith? Absolutely.

And one of the ways you and I do that is by loving all the dysfunctional people in churches who, because of Jesus, happen to be our eternal brothers and sisters. And, in return, they welcome and love us, too (which is not always an easy task!).

Because the old saying is true: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And when it comes to your relationship with your Heavenly Father, far is better than fast.

Go Deeper:

• Are you struggling to connect with a church, or are there particular people at your church whom you’re avoiding? Spend some time in prayer and ask God to show you how you can connect and begin to build community.
• Next weekend, make it your mission to get out of the water and go to church to say hello to your brothers and sisters—and hear the teaching of His Word.