Love Them “AS IS”

Do the people outside the walls know that you and your church care about them? Don’t give the easy answer. Think through this. Do they believe you care about them and their families just because they are important to you or do they suspect some ulterior motive? Do they feel like you love them, “as is”?

It is easy to view them as what they can become. They can fill those critical leadership roles in the organizational chart. They can create the growth momentum that all of us want. With a little encouragement and training they can help with the budget needs that growing ministry creates. The presence of “new people” almost always creates a sense of freshness and excitement.

Loving people for what they become is easy, but do you love them as they are right now. If you don’t, is it any wonder they look at us with a little suspicion, if they look at us at all. We all know of couples that got married and one or the other set out to change their partner. They loved them for what they could become. There is real trouble with that attitude in a marriage or in a church.

You will love some people naturally. I am blessed with a wife that is more attractive than I am physically, intellectually and spiritually. I didn’t have to learn or pray about loving her. While our love has grown through the years, I began loving her very naturally.

Some people you can only love eventually. Have you ever heard this, “He’s a little odd but when you get to really know him you will learn to like him.” What that really means is that he is a jerk right now, but you can learn to love him eventually.

There are a handful of people that you will not love naturally, you will not even learn to love eventually, but you can only love them obediently. Jesus commanded us to love! Love them “as is” in obedience to the Lord Himself.

A handful of folks in the church at Corinth must have accused Paul of not really loving them for who they were. In the final chapter of II Corinthians as Paul is telling of his plans to come a third time to Corinth he says, “I will not burden you, for I am not seeking what is yours but you.” (HCSV) If the Corinthians could have felt that way about Paul after all the sacrifices he went through to bring the gospel, is it any wonder that our world sometimes looks at the church with suspicion.

When we hear someone accusing the church of not caring, it is tempting to say, “Well it’s just not true” and somehow think that fixes it. If we are taking seriously the Jerusalem challenge in the Great Commission, then it is not just their problem, it is our problem. We must first be sure we do love them. We know we are commanded to but do we really love them or do we just love what they might become. When we settle that in our hearts we must develop ways as individuals and churches to communicate that love to them. People want to be loved but they are leery of being used.

Ernie McCoulskey, Director of Missions
Kauf-Van Baptist Association
Terrell, TX