Resolved: I Will Love My Church Family

A Church Defined by Doctrine, Known By Love

I am sure most of us have thought about some personal goals for 2021

Hebrews 13 will cause us to think about some goals that we should have as a church family.

If you are a covenant member of this local church family you have a particular set of duties that the Lord requires of you – membership in a church is not passive, but decisively active.

Even the weekly act of gathering together for Lord’s Day worship should be filled with active intentionality – as we come together we are to think about how to encourage one another and how to stir one another up to love and good works.

1. A church is defined by its doctrine – in other words, the truths we believe serve as the permanent boundaries for our covenantal life together. We commit ourselves and our discipleship to one another because of a mutual belief in the gospel and multiple other truths as authoritatively set forth in the Bible.

The author of Hebrews has reminded us to hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering – so what we believe, defines who we are as the people of God.

2. A church is known by its love – Jesus actually commands the church to be known for its distinctive love for one another.

Jn 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

3. Hebrews 13 contains the concluding remarks and is mostly a series of ethical instructions for the church. The author begins with the command to love.

He says, “Let brotherly love continue.”

If a church ceases to love, it discredits the gospel and ceases to be what God has called it to be.

So we need to explore this exhortation a little deeper, each of us must approach the new year with the resolve, I Will Love My Church Family.

The Nature of Our Love

What kind of love are we to have toward one another in the church?

The kind of love we are to have is familial – brotherly love.

Romans 12:10 says that we are to “love one another with brotherly affection.

Paul writes in 1 Thess 4:9-10, “Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more…”

Familial love is forged in blood – and so is brotherly love in the church – brothers and sisters have the same DNA, and brothers and sisters in the church have been purchased by the same blood, the blood of Christ – therefore our bond of love should be just as tight or even tighter than a familial bond.

Familial love is marked by affection – we should have a fondness for another and a closeness.

Familial love is marked by loyalty and commitment – the bond of love that we have towards one another should not be easily broken and hindered.

To become a member of a church is to enter into a covenantal family relationship – it is not a consumer/business relationship

1 Peter 4:8-9 “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.”

Have you resolved to love your church family in this manner? Have you resolved to covenant with a local church family?

Persevering in Love

1. The author calls for the continuance of brotherly love – insinuating that this love was present currently in the life of the church.

The apostle Paul often gave thanks for the presence of love in the church.

Eph 1:15 “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,”

Col 1:3–4 “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints…”

Phm 4–5 “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,…”

I am thankful for the presence of brotherly love in our church family

1. In particular, all the patience and love that has been demonstrated during the past year with all of modifications that we have experienced to the normal rhythms of church life.

2. I see in our church a desire to be together and a commitment to one another – I know there is a longing to get totally back to normal.

3. We each need to look for ways to continue in brotherly love during this time.

2. This exhortation reminds us that love must be preserved and protected.

i. Let brotherly love continue – meaning do not hinder the continuance of it.

ii. One of Satan’s great designs is to sow discord among the brethren.

1. He wants nothing more than for saints to begin to bite and devour one another.

iii. Thomas Brooks gives several ways to preserve and protect the church from such division:

1. To dwell on one another’s graces more than upon weaknesses.

a. “Grace in the choicest flower in all the Christian’s garden.”

2. Realize that love and unity is to your own safety and advantage.

a. “We shall be invincible if we be inseparable.” – how true in the rising tide of this secular age.

3. To dwell upon the commands of God to love one another.

4. To dwell upon the miseries of discord.

a. “Take away strife, and call back peace, lest thou lose a man who is your friend, and give your enemy, the devil, joy over you both.

b. Also remember that one of the 7 things the Lord hates is one who sows discord among the brethren!

3. Are you resolved to persevere in love and to protect the love in this local church?

Growing In Love

1. For brotherly love to continue it also must grow – because as we grow in godliness, we will also grow in love.

a. 2 Pe 1:5–8 “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

b. The author here suggests that it is brotherly love, brotherly affection that grows us up into the unbreakable and unconditional love that God has demonstrated to us in the sending of his Son.

c. 1 Jn 4:10–17 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

d. We always have room to grow in love!

2. The Local Church is God’s Laboratory for Growing in Love!

3. Are you resolved to grow in love towards one another in 2021?

The Love of Christ is the Greatest Love of All

1. When God calls us to love, he calls us to love as he has loved us.

i. Jn 15:12–13 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

2. How do we measure our love for one another? We measure it by the love of Christ in laying down his life for us.

3. How far are we to go in loving one another? As far as Jesus went, and he went all the way to the cross.

i. You see love is linked to faith – to have faith in Christ, is to possess the fruit of his spirit (Gal 5:22, the fruit of the spirit in love), which is expressed by giving special glory to God and bearing witness to the world that we are his by loving one another.

4. Let us commit together, at the beginning of this year, let us be resolved to Love Our Church Family!