Love for all of God's people
Examining Paul's daring writing
I grew up in a local assembly that practiced huge segregation to a fault.
We learned isolation both by indirect and direct indoctrination. We always saw ourselves as better than people from other churches, not to mention unbelievers.
It is not clear if the church intentionally taught this or if this segregation spirit was an offshoot of wrong teaching. A lot can be learned when you hear wrongly.
It was so bad that this isolation mentality trailed me everywhere. Even in my days in the higher institution, I barely made any friends. Even among fellow believers, it was difficult to mingle.
Some people know how to remain in the middle—not here, not there. For someone like me, I’m only in fully or totally out. So my experience may differ from some other people who also had a similar background to mine.
Well, things have changed a lot today.
Most young people from the church now care very little about isolation and segregation from other believers. No, I don’t think they blur the lines on their convictions, but I will say they’re beginning to understand the gift of the body more. This should not be a surprise, though. The founder himself has broken out of some very age-long segregating mindsets.
But that’s not the reason for this write-up.
While studying Colossians 1 today, I found something very interesting.
Paul commended the Colossian believers because of their faith in Christ Jesus and LOVE for ALL of God’s people (Colossians 1:4).
On a random reading, this verse wouldn’t pass for much, but in meditation, I began to see the carefulness in those words.
‘LOVE for ALL of God’s people.’
Didn’t Paul know that among this ‘ALL of God’s people,’ there might be some people who may not understand God’s word perfectly and hence should have warned the Colossians to separate themselves?
We know Paul was big on falsehood and those who peddled errors in the body. He taught extensively what should be the believer’s response to such persons.
We should not shy away from correcting errors when we see them. It is a collective duty for every member of the body.
But the belief that you’re better than everyone else and that you have no need of them, thus separating yourself from them, will never make sense to me.
A true proof that you’re learning accurately and also growing rightly is a deep love for ALL of God’s people.
If you find yourself in a place where you have little regard for other people not from your denomination, I think and believe that you have a very serious problem.
1 Peter 1:22,
“You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other DEEPLY with all your heart.”
One beautiful thing about the believer’s life is that we are not just told to do something; we are even told HOW to do it. So, there is no cause for uncertainty. The Bible appreciates clarity. It is not enough to LOVE your fellow believers. You must love them DEEPLY.
The KJV uses the word FERVENTLY.
How do we explain this deepness or fervency?
How deep or how fervent should this love be that we should have for our brothers and sisters?
A comparative form of the word “fervently” (ektenōs) was used by the physician, Luke, while describing the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Now, a little preview about Luke, the physician.
Luke was a very thorough person. About himself, he has this to say,
“It seemed good to me also, having had PERFECT UNDERSTANDING of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,” (Luke 1:2)
So, this man was not just anyhow person. He was thorough in what he wrote and recorded. His account of Jesus is one of the broadest. He shared more parables of Jesus than the other epistles. In the record of the events in the garden of Gethsemane, his was a little different from others. He recorded an angelic visitation and the fervency of Jesus’s prayer.
Luke 22:44,
“And being in an agony he prayed more EARNESTLY: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
He described the prayer of Jesus as “earnestly.” He went ahead to explain or give a vivid imagination of what he meant; that’s why you have the colon (:) after the word “earnestly.”
The prayer of Jesus was so earnest that it could be compared to a profuse physical perspiration that looked like great drops of blood falling to the ground. That is the description of the earnestness of Jesus’s prayer that night.
It is a comparative form of this same word that Peter uses in 1 Peter 1:22 to describe HOW we should love our brothers and sisters.
1 Peter 1:22 ,
“You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you MUST show SINCERE love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other DEEPLY with ALL your heart.”
Examine all the bolded words above. See how intentional they are. I dare say that many of us (including myself) do not yet know what the life of a believer entails.
Do you know that the same kind of love the Bible speaks of here is not different from the love Paul speaks about in the book of Ephesians?
They’re the same kind of love: agapaō.
So, that deep emotional feeling you have for your spouse is the same way you should feel for your fellow brother and sister. But we separate them most times. We reserve the deepest one for our spouse and the less deep one for others.
That’s why I bolded the ALL in that verse.
“Love each other deeply with ALL your heart.”
So, if you’ve used up all your heart to love your brother and sister, no one is expected to remain reserved specially for your spouse, lol. Just kidding.