Whole Lotta Love

There are six words in our new slogan, “Grow in Love, Love by Serving.” Only one word appears twice: the word ‘love.’

It’s not by accident.

Everything we do here is firmly rooted in love. It starts with God’s love for us. Nothing in all of creation- nothing– can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:35-39). God loved you so much that he gave his only son for you (John 3:16). God’s love is foundational to everything we do, and everything we are.

Out of this comes our love for each other. We love others because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). We do not serve primarily out of duty or obligation, though those can be an important part of any loving relationship. Rather, serving is how we express our love. We could express our love lots of ways, and we should, but service is the main way.

The love of God, and our subsequent love for others, are the root of our growth and our service. We grow, and serve, because of love. Let’s talk about growing first.

Absent the love of God, we cannot grow. I share this because in many situations where we would normally think about growing, content is king. The focus is on the information being learned, not on the environment in which it is taught. For us, this is backwards. That is to say, the environment is more important than the content. To put it bluntly, I’d rather have bad content in a loving environment than great content in an unloving one.

The same is true of our service. We could easily find a charity, go through the motions, and do some good in the world. We could do that. But we don’t, because that’s not who we are. We serve because we love. So really, the kind of service does not matter all that much. There are a lot of ways we can show love, and most of them are equally valid.

What matters more is not what we do, but that it is done in love. Love is the driving force behind our service. How we serve matters a whole lot less than the love behind it. Because, again, it’s all about love.

This has profound implications for how we move forward, because it means that who we are matters more than what we do. We can do an awful lot, but if we aren’t doing it in love, no one will grow, and no one will be served. Love is what matters most. Without that, we’re wasting our time.

And if we aren’t filled with love for God and others, what to do about that? Well, then we go back to the beginning.

We encounter the love of God poured on each of us. We face the cross and embrace the love of Christ poured out in his suffering, death and resurrection. Because God’s love for us is where everything starts.

Remember: God loves you, and so do I.
-Pastor Scott