5 Ways to Encourage Gospel Community
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35
The Gospel Community is one that is shaped by the Gospel. And what does that shape look like? It looks like God, it looks like Jesus, it looks like love. This radical, humble, serving, sacrificial love is what we receive from the gospel and is now ours to share.
But what does love look like in these unique times? We are being challenged to look at this in a new light as safety restrictions strip away all of our “how we usually….”.
In his book, The Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight gives these five marks of God’s love. So I will suggest some ways we might reflect these elements of God’s love during this unique and challenging time.
1. Love Is A Rugged Commitment
God has remained committed to his chosen people through highs and lows, rejections and revolts. And through it all God remained ruggedly committed to his very first promise of victory in the beginning – even unto death (Gen. 3:15)! God is faithful even when we are not (2 Tim 2:13).
We too can remain “ruggedly committed” to each other during this time. Even though we might want to throw the blankets over our head behind locked in doors protecting those we love, remaining committed looks like staying engaged, looking for ways to communicate, connect and support in ways that are safe, permissible and important. We can remain committed to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Love Is Affective
The Lord “sets his affection” on his own (Deut. 10:15, 7:7, 1 John 3:1). His love is full of emotion, deep and intimate. During this time even more than before let us show sincere emotional care with our words. Not just listening to the needs of others. Not just ignoring the plight of others because there is literally nothing you can do, but speaking life and truth to one another is so powerful. And yes, this “you” can be used singularly and as well as “you all” for all of God’s people.
You are valuable. (Matt 6:26)
Your encouraging words are very precious. (Prov. 10:20)
You have been set apart for the Lord. (Deut. 14:2)
You have purpose. (Ps 57:2)
What other words of delight and promise has God confirmed in you today? Who can you share this with? These word might not come naturally to us, but they are words of Truth, spoken from God Himself. Yes, they raise emotions and though we might be geared to appeal to science and pragmatics and not emotions, our Lord himself made our emotions and cares for them. During this time where emotional fear and devastation are rampant, let us fill up one another’s ‘love tanks’ with words of affective Truth!
3. Love Is Presence
God is present with us ALL THE TIME through his very own Spirit. In “normal” times we might enjoy being with those we love, enjoy and have things in common with so this challenge of presence might extend to being present with those who are different from us or we don’t naturally connect with.
But in this unique setting being present is challenged by it actually being illegal to be present with most people. It is actually an unsafe and unloving thing to do. Then for some of us, we are constantly present with those we love dearly but the constant presence is overwhelming. During this season, acknowledging and resting in the presence of God of the universe, Creator, Redeemer and King is probably most fundamental (1 John 4:16).
Do not neglect meeting with your Saviour through His Spirit regularly and often. He’s always there. Only then can we in turn find both the emotional capacity and wisdom to be truly present with another person whether in person or from a distance. We can ask a loved one in the home with us, “how are you doing, really doing?” and just listen and reflect – something we often forget when we are with them all the time. We can show our presence by phone calls, letters and messages. Even a brief “Hey I’m thinking and praying for you” or a good long chat on the phone where you can empathize and relate and end in prayer communicate real presence that is connected through Jesus Christ.
4. Love Is Advocacy
“Our God has our back” says McKnight. He fights for us; he defends us; he protects us. In this season where we have heightened awareness of our mortality, we need not fear because he is for us, so who can be against us? (Rom 8:31) This does not mean we will never get sick or never die, but it does mean we do not live in fear of either the now or the after. We do not listen in fear to doomsdayers who want to tell us to beware and protect just ourselves or to radical religious talkers that want to make us tremble under religious legalism.
Our God is for us and not against us. Our advocate is Jesus Christ and our God is all powerful and loves us (Rom 8:38-39). So now too we can advocate for one another through prayer to our Father confidently through Jesus Christ (Heb 4:16). We can advocate for one another by being a voice of reason, respect and resilience. We can advocate for one another when we follow the instructions given to us by our governing agencies out of respect for them and for others.
5. Love Has Direction
There is a purpose to God’s love and there is a purpose to our love. This is crucial. God’s love brought him to sacrifice his one and only Son so that we can be brought back into right relationship with him and Christ can live in us (Gal 2:20). This purpose of God’s love can define everything he does.
Similarly for us, we can love others not just so they feel good (which right now could be a pretty defeating goal), not just so we feel good about ourselves and not just because it is the right thing to do! We love others so that they too may come to personally know the Author behind our love. We love sacrificially so that others are further encouraged towards the likeness of Christ in their faith and their walk in Christ (Rom 8:28-29). And we love radically so that more may come to know the Lord who made them and loves them, and know that He is calling them back to himself in a radically sacrificial way.
“As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
And so, I encourage you to love as you have been loved – ruggedly committed, emotionally affective, genuinely present, openly advocating and confident in direction. This is going to look different for different people and so it should. But if we are each sincerely pursuing loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbour as ourselves we can confidently take one step at a time together as a gospel shaped community.
Joanna Hoffman
Minister of Community Life
Windsor District Baptist Church
