Is love really most important?
Jonathan at “Missio Dei” wrote a very revealing quiz called “A Church Quiz“:
1. I would rather go to a church that:
(A) Had great worship
(B) There was love.2. I would rather go to a small group that:
(A) Had cool people.
(B) There was love.3. I would rather participate in community that:
(A) Had lots of programs
(B) There was love.4. I would rather attend a function that:
(A) Was hip and entertaining
(B) There was love.5. I would rather be led by:
(A) A really smart person.
(B) Someone who loved.
So… how did you do on the quiz?
I think I am a charter member of the “B” team.
I do not want to be a clanging cymbal.
Alan,
I am as Andy. In the B’s.
Steven
Yep… Love is most important. I’ll go along with Jonathan, Andy, Steven, and Jesus on this one.
-Alan
The LORD has surely led me to a place where I’d choose love, but I think you’d have to put many church members on lie detectors in order to get accurate results on this one.
If all only realized all of the other “options” only medicate their need for love and intimacy.
In one of our home groups just last night, a young, new Believer opened up about being gay up until he was born again two months ago. I believe with all that is within me, that he was able to share this because unconditional love was present every time we gather. Love will change lives.
Alan:
I’m certainly in the B group. But sometimes I think we confuse the “warm fuzzies” we get from worship, cool people, structured programs, hip entertainment and smart people as love.
Keith
Keith, I think I agree with you. I have to admit it took me 38 years to go from A to B.
The sad thing is that most of us were taught to care more about “great worship”, “cool people”, “lots of programs”, “hip and entertaining”, and “really smart” leaders in the first place.
-Alan
Alan,
When I read the quiz, I was befuddled. I asked, where is the mention to the WORD? Love is important, absolutely! But, is love more important than doctrine preached from the Bible?
When it comes right down to it, I think “how can a church be loving and living according to the Bible, if they are not taught the Bible?”
Maybe that was supposed to be an assumed, since I do not know Jonathan who made the quiz, I cannot know.
He says: “would you rather go to a church” – so he is speaking of an actual local body, not a universal group of believers. What would happen if we all chose the church that we deemed most loving? Perhaps we would all go to a church that welcomed in gays/lesbians without any discomfort of showing them what God says about homosexuality and subsequently asking them to repent. (I am not saying that we ought to do that on their first visit.) Or, I may choose a church that, because of their love for people, was really good at meeting peoples’ physical or perceived psychological needs, without ever telling them the true Gospel, or offering real hope for their lives!
(I think we ought to meet needs, Jesus commands us to! But, they also need to meet THE Need Meeter! “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17)
I do not think it should be about going “from A to B,” so much as it should be about looking from programs and “what can this church offer me” to desiring a church that really cares about rightly diving the Word of God, and OUT of that comes some other great things!
Troubled,
Bethany
Bethany,
What did Jesus say was most important? Studying the Bible or love?
-Alan
Alan,
I was never denying that Jesus commanded us to love. John 13:34-35says that our love sets us out as his disciples. I agree that we absolutely have to love! But, where do we learn to love? God is love. But, where do I go to learn about God?
Bethany
Bethany,
Love is a product of the presence and work of the indwelling Holy Spirit in a believer’s life.
-Alan