Over the last two or three months I have not been able to shake a passage of Scripture that I read in my quiet time one day. I think it’s simplicity and straightforward instruction was what struck me so profoundly. It is a passage containing just two short verses tucked into the last chapter of 1 Corinthians.
As Paul wraps up his long letter to a very troubled church, he leaves them with some parting words that are so simple, they are impossible to misunderstand.
He says in 1 Cor. 16:13-14 (NLT)
Be on guard. Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong. And everything you do must be done with love.
Very simple. Not easy to obey, but certainly simple to grasp. When I read this a few weeks ago, I remember thinking to myself “if I could just live out these words, my life would be successful.” I am especially struck by the last challenge Paul gives. EVERYTHING you do must be done with love. The one non-negotiable of how we deal with people is that we must love them.
One of the things we would teach in our Purpose Driven conferences at Saddleback had to do with the priorities of a purpose-driven church. The priorities were in this order… Purposes… people… programs… property.
Notice that people come before programs or buildings or property. That is certainly no surprise, but in many churches it seems that people can become an interruption to our busy schedule and ministry lives. I need to constantly be reminded that “people ARE the ministry”.
More important than my sermons or my leadership is how well I love people. As those who lead in church, we ought to set the stellar example of loving people. We ought to care about and treat people better than anybody else in the community.
For many of us, the desire to love and shepherd people is part of what God used to draw us to ministry. But somewhere along the way we got busy building a church and preparing sermons and managing budgets and writing sermons and we forgot that our higher priority is to love people.
This week:
- Let's notice people
- Look them in the eye
- Take time to pray with someone
- Really listen
- Make it your goal that EVERYTHING you do will be done in love.
Posted on
Sunday, March 8, 2009
by Lance Witt
filed under