Gospel Power at Work
The effect of having an entire church made up of people just like you is that church would be a lot easier, wouldn’t it? Imagine going to church and there’s nobody there to ruffle your feathers. There’s nobody you disagree with. Everybody just gets you innately because they share the same background as you do.
And yet I think Jesus’s words in Luke 6 are good for us to remember: “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you?” What does that say about the power of the gospel at work in your life? Instead, he says, “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great and you’ll be sons of the Most High. For he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
People in church are not your enemies. We’re one in Christ. We’re family. But sometimes they can feel like your enemies. What Jesus reminded us of here is that when we love in ways that we can only love by the power of God’s Spirit, we show him to be sufficient. We show him to be good and glorious.
Easy love rarely shows off gospel power. What we give up when we flee to the comfort of similarity, when we flee to that place where it’s just easy all the time, is the ability to see God at work and our love for each other in a way that is joyful for us and honoring to him.
Jamie Dunlop is the author of Love the Ones Who Drive You Crazy: Eight Truths for Pursuing Unity in Your Church.
Jamie Dunlop serves as an associate pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church. He is the coauthor (with Mark Dever) of The Compelling Community and author of Budgeting for a Healthy Church. Jamie and his wife Joan have three school-aged children and live on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
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