The Church 

And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 NLT

Unlearn: I will learn God's love best in a church with no problems.
Learn: I will learn God's love best when I love people in a church with problems.

Did you know that the church may be the number one reason people say they leave Christianity? Specifically, people in the church are the real reason. Countless scandals make members feel betrayed. Infighting makes us feel unsafe. Personal hurts make us feel unloved. Countless numbers of genuinely hurt former believers have left their faith because they felt as though people in the church had little to do with a God of love.

With all the pain people within the church have caused, why should we look to it as a gateway for God's love? How is this a place where God runs after us in reckless, category-breaking affection? The answer is in the pain.

Repeat this. 
I will learn God's love best when I love people in a church with problems.

For some of us, we jump from church to church looking for the perfect church.
Two things to consider if you are looking for the "perfect" church.

First, you'll never find one, because they are full of imperfect, hard-to-love people. 
Second, if you do happen to find one that seems perfect, run. You'll never learn to obey Jesus in a church like that."

We talked about how Jesus loved the unwanted, the unexpected, and the unlovable. These are the ones considered to be the "other." Jesus loved the other. The church is one of the primary gateways of God's love because the people in it can be so flawed. The church's imperfections are not a reason to leave or mistrust it; rather, they are meant to magnify the greatness of God's forgiveness. For every church split, God's love endures. For every broken relationship, God's compassion extends. For every leadership failure, God holds out world-offending grace.

We shouldn't be saying, "If God is a God of love, how could this be his church?" We should say in awe, "Only a God of love could have a church like this."

God has always loved a hard-to-love people.
Throughout the story of the Bible, God pursues his people like a faithful husband running after his runaway bride. After their exodus from Egypt, God marries the Israelites, betrothing himself to them (Ex. 19:5—6; Jer. 2:2). Though they cheat on him, ignore him, and use him, God continues to extend his steadfast love through the cruelest adulteries (Hos. 11: 7—8). Finally, after divorce papers have been served to him, God swears that he will make a new marriage covenant with them that can never be broken or voided (Jer. 31:31—32). 

This is the new covenant, or what many of our Bibles call the "New Testament," which Jesus brought. Jesus is our divine husband come in the flesh (John 3:29; Matt. 9: 15). The people he calls to himself form his bride. On the cross, in his resurrection, and through the ongoing work of his Spirit, he makes these people perfect, spotless, and beautiful (Eph. 5:25—27).

This bride, whom Jesus has pursued through the ages and died to purchase, is the church.

His own disciples disproved the notion that this bride can be made up of only flawless people who never offend or fall. Peter denied him. Thomas doubted him. Paul killed his earliest followers. The very moment after Jesus established this new covenant with his disciples, they started arguing among themselves over which of them was the greatest (Luke 22:24). Jesus did not look at these wishy-washy, divisive, petty followers and say, "This can't be my bride. How could I love people like this? How could I die for people like this? Let me look somewhere else." No. Jesus, the ultimate husband, loved his bride before she ever loved him. He died for a hard-to-love people.

This is the beauty of God's love. If he loved a lovable bride, we would not marvel at his love. If he perfected an already perfect bride, we would not stagger at his transformative power. God's love is made all the more alluring because of whom he loves. He loves us. He loves you. He loves the broken, messed up, imperfect, offensive, and hated. His love breaks all our categories. It is of a different caliber and kind, and it is best displayed in how he loves a hard-to-love church.

The church is not a natural place of liking and sympathy or a country club but a ragtag mix of disciples learning to obey all that Jesus commanded. In church, we get the chance to learn God's love for us by learning to love others.

I say again: We are here to:

Unlearn: I will learn God's love best in a church with no problems.
Learn: I will learn God's love best when I love people in a church with problems.

God commands Unity. Just look at all the One Another commands in the Bible..
The New Testament is full of "one another" commands. We are commanded to bear one another's burdens, honor one another, bear with one another, forgive one another, accept one another, be patient with one another, and confess our faults to one another. Sixteen times we are commanded to love one another.

Here's the interesting thing: God would not have to command us to love everyone if everyone were lovable. We can't obey the call to forgive one another in a church with no offenses. We can't follow the instruction to bear with one another in a community with no burdens. We can't keep the command to be reconciled to one another in a group with no divisions. We can't love one another in the way Jesus has loved us in a church that is not hard to love.

Jesus said that even the worst people in the world love those who love them (Luke 6:32 NLT). 
“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them!

Even people who want nothing to do with Jesus will love someone who benefits them in return (Luke 6:33 NLT). 
And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much!

Jesus, on the other hand, calls us to love even our enemies (Luke 6:35 NLT). 
“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.

And even within the church we are commanded to infinitely forgive those who sin against us (Matt. 18:21-22 NLT).
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!

The only church community where these "one another" commands can be obeyed is within a church filled with broken and difficult people. We need to love the others. But we also need the love of others.

The church is the divinely appointed place where Jesus followers show each other Jesus' love. I mean this literally. The church is the chosen organism for us to encounter Jesus' love for us and to love him in return. Just as a husband is one flesh with his wife, Jesus is one flesh with his church.

That is why the church is also called the body of Christ. To love the church is to love Jesus. To be loved by his church is to be loved by Jesus. The church is a physical place with physical people where we can experience Jesus' love.

When we love others and are loved by others, we experience and embody Jesus' category-breaking love.

Jesus wants us to experience how long-suffering, forgiving, and patient he is with us. The church is a community of people who are to show that long-suffering, forgiving patience to us. The body of Christ is equipped to love us when we are the hardest to love.

We are the other. But the community of Christ teaches us that though we may be unlovable sometimes, we are nevertheless deeply and unconditionally loved. Though we may be hard to forgive sometimes, we have been totally forgiven. Though we are the ones who cause others to suffer, we see a body that suffers willingly for us because we are greatly loved.

The church also helps us experience Jesus' category-breaking love by bringing us into community with people with whom we must be long-suffering, forgiving, and patient. 

When we run into those moments when we say, "There's no way I could forgive this person one more time for the same stupid thing!" Jesus says to us, "I will forgive you an endless amount of times for any stupid thing."

Our lack of patience with brothers and sisters reveals Jesus' infinite patience with us. Our short fuse reveals his long fuse. Our snap judgments reveal his gracious assessments. Our tendency to bail and move on reveals his commitment to stay and persevere.

The church embodies Jesus' category-breaking love. When we love the other, we join Jesus in his mission of love. There is no greater mystery or pleasure than that of being a carrier of the greatest love in the world. There is no greater gateway to God's love than your willingness to love the unlovable. Love the people in your church, community, and world and you will experience Jesus' love in a powerful new way.

Remember this: 
Jesus is teaching you his love for the broken through broken churches. Can you believe in a Jesus who loves that hard? - Amen.

I say again:
And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 NLT

Recommended Reading:  Learning to be Loved by David Bowden and Mart Green

Ok. Church. Living Word. Let's show Unity even more in 2024.