Without Love

It is sometimes suggested that anyone who sins willfully cannot be a genuine believer. The adverb “willfully” is usually associated with certain sins. But in light of I Corinthians chapter 13, and in light of the way most believers do not even attempt to fulfill its commandments, we all are living in willful sin. Ambivalent, contented with failure, and exhibiting no more or less love than do those who walk in darkness.

In fact, the western church has long since lost the knowledge of what it means to truly love each other, to say nothing of loving our enemies as did Jesus upon the cross. No wonder we have to manipulate sinners to come to Christ through programs, entertainment, and strategies. I am convinced that the greatest stumblingblock to lost sinners is not the moral failures of pastors, or the iconoclast attacks from the devil, or even the Biblical illiteracy of the average church goer.

It is the abject and blatant lack of demonstrable love of the individual believer and the church of Jesus Christ as a whole. Without love we have nothing but powerless, theological words.