Over the past several months, I’ve been blogging my way through our church mission statement: “to make disciples of Jesus Christ who love God and love people, by reaching and teaching everyone.“

Today, we come to the next phrase, “love people.” Followers of Jesus Christ are called not only to love God, but also to love people. The principal text for loving others is Matthew 22:39. Jesus, after identifying love for God as the greatest commandment, says in His next breath, “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” Then Jesus makes this stunning statement: “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:40). In other words, if we truly love God and love others, we are perfectly obeying God.

Some people have noted that the first commandment (love for God) covers the first four of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:3-11), and the second commandment (love for others) covers the last six of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:12-17). None of us, except Christ, are able to keep these commandments perfectly, but love becomes the supreme goal of every believer.

There’s another key passage on loving others, a passage that must be deeply embedded in our hearts. John 13:34-35 says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

There verses teach us five important lessons about love:

1. The mandate of love. Love is not merely a suggestion, an abstract ideal. It is a commandment from the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. John 15:12, 17; 1 John 3:23). And it is not merely a one-time act at the moment of conversion, but a continuous action, to “keep on loving” one another. Love is something that must describe our behavior every day, to all people, in all situations. According to Jerome, this command was so impressed upon the heart of the Apostle John that in his extreme old age, John would often be heard repeating over and over “Love one another…Love one another.” When asked why he so often repeated this command, he responded, “Because it is the Lord’s commandment; and if it be fulfilled, it is enough.”
2. The model of love. What makes Jesus’ commandment “new” is that He has raised the standard of love much higher. A glance earlier in the chapter reveals Jesus on his knees, girded with a towel, humbly washing the feet of His disciples. A few chapters later, Jesus will empty Himself to the ultimate level by dying on the cross for our sin. This humble, costly, unselfish love becomes the model for how we should now love one another.
3. The meaning of love. The Greek word Jesus uses in these verses is agape. It is an unconditional love, the deliberate setting of your affection upon someone else. True love is choosing to love someone, even when it’s not easy, and even when they’re not worthy. How grateful we can be God first demonstrated this love toward us! (Rom. 5:8) And now we are called to love others in the same way (1 John 4:11).
4. The magnitude of love. Jesus says we are not only to love our small circle of friends, but every single person in the church. “One another” speaks of the community of God, the entire body of believers. It’s all-inclusive, and includes loving our enemies (Lk. 6:32, 35), loving those who are unattractive, loving strangers (Rom. 12:13), loving our family members, loving the needy (James 1:27), loving the wayward (Gal. 6:1), and loving those who are different than us. None are excluded from this kind of love.
5. The mission of love. Our love for one another has serious evangelistic implications. We are all ambassadors of Christ, and the world’s perception of the church will determine their perception of Christ. Does the world view Christianity as angry, cynical, factional, self-righteous, and hypocritical? Or do they see our kindness, our forgiveness, our faith, our compassion, our sacrifice, and yes, even our tough love? Show me a church that is loving, and I will show you a church that is winning souls for Christ. But show me a church with outreach programs every night of the week, yet lacking love, and I’ll show you a church that is actually doing damage to the gospel. Because of our sin, the church will never be perfect until Christ comes and glorifies us, but by God’s grace, our love for one another should constantly be growing (1 Thess. 4:9-10). Love is the greatest apologetic for the truth of Christianity.

Jesus commands His disciples to love, but He never said love would be easy. C.S. Lewis writes,

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless— [your heart] will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable; impenetrable, irredeemable…The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is Hell.

Love is a frightening prospect, but it’s also a thrilling opportunity. Let’s learn to be vulnerable with one another, so that every church might become a refuge of love, where Christ will be honored and where the world will see the gospel not only through our words, but through our actions.

Back in 2007, I took some of our men at church through a one-year discipleship program called “SaLT” (Servant Leadership Training). We read a book a month, memorized several key Scriptures, and came together once a month for some lively discussion and mentoring.

In 2008, we tried something a little different. Instead of all the men meeting at one time, I encouraged them to break up into small mentor groups, finding one or two “Timothys” they could each disciple. All the groups went through a common book, Living the Cross Centered Life, and I made up a set of discussion questions in advance for each group to use. This mentor-group program was open to both men and women in the church, and it saw mixed success. Some groups met regularly and reported some wonderful times of prayer and encouragement. Other groups never seemed to get off the ground, meeting only once or twice at best.

In 2009, I’m excited to re-introduce our SaLT program, but with a few tweaks to the program. Instead of asking participants to read a whole book each month, we’re listening to one audio sermon or lecture (there’s a wealth of great mp3 material available online for free!). And instead of memorizing a whole passage of Scripture, we’ve scaled it down to one verse per month. You can visit our podcast here.

Last Saturday morning was our first SaLT meeting for 2009. We were very blessed to have 8 men attend the group, including several who have some real leadership potential.

For our January meeting, I asked the men in advance to listen to the message “Pastoral Success and the Cross of Christ,” preached by R. Kent Hughes at the 1989 Desiring God Conference for Pastors. It’s a scaled down version of his excellent book Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome. (If you’re in any level of pastoral ministry and have not read this book before, it is a must-read.) Although delivered twenty years ago, Hughes’ message could not be more relevant than today, as he addresses many of the pragmatic forms of success that have infiltrated the church.

Hughes recalls a dark time early in his ministry when attendance began to dwindle and he came very close to resigning as pastor and abandoning his call to ministry. But the Lord gave him and his wife Barbara new hope as they began to open the Scriptures and see that true success is not measured by marketing techniques and worldly standards, but by six basic principles:

1. Faithfulness. Hughes’ principal text for overcoming the “Success Syndrome” was 1 Cor. 4:1-2. God is not looking for impressive numbers. He’s looking for faithful obedience to His Word.

2. Serving. Success is not about having preeminence. The symbol of Christianity is the cross.

3. Loving God. This is the #1 priority in all our life and ministry. If we don’t have love, everything else we accomplish will be meaningless (1 Cor. 13:1).

4. Believing. Much of ministry is walking by faith, and not by sight. Our doctrine must affect our living. In the trials of life, we must learn to “believe what we believe.”

5. Prayer. Church leaders must learn to be men of prayer. This is an area I want to continue to grow in.

6. Holiness. We are called to be holy, even as God is holy. This includes areas such as sexual purity, where many pastors are particularly vulnerable.

These six principles define true success in ministry. It’s not that we should hope our churches (or convention) will shrink in size, but we can rest assured that if we’re faithful to God’s Word and let Him take care of the results, we will find true success in His eyes.

Side note: This is my 200th post on this blog. With SaLT starting back up, and church ministry growing busier every day, I may be a little less active on this blog in 2009. But I still see it as a valuable tool in my discipleship toolbox.

The best way to stay informed of new articles I’m writing is to sign up for my weekly email or subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks to my faithful readers out there!

Steve Burchett is a friend I met at the Founders Conference in Oklahoma in 2007. Then I amazingly ran into him again at Together for the Gospel in Kentucky in 2008. He has his own blog and is part of a great ministry called “Christian Communicators Worldwide,” which is led by Jim Eliff.

Steve recently wrote an article on “Ten Reasons Why Nursing Homes are Great Places to Minister” (link updated). Ministering in nursing homes can be difficult work, but it’s a huge encouragement to ailing believers as well as an important final witness to the unsaved. It’s easy for churches to overlook the homebound and infirm, yet Matthew 25:40 reminds us that when we serve even the least of Christ’s brothers or sisters, we are serving Him.

Here’s the list Steve came up with:

1. Nursing homes provide an avenue to obey God, Who tells us to serve the downcast and rejected.

2. Nursing homes offer numerous opportunities for evangelism.

3. Nursing home residents will increase your trust in a sovereign God.

4. Nursing homes make available a place of real and life-impacting ministry for young men contemplating or heading into the ministry.

5. Nursing homes present a way to teach children to love their neighbor.

6. Nursing homes remind us that sickness and death are coming.

7. Nursing homes put you in the presence of older saints who are persevering in the Lord.

8. Nursing homes put you in the presence of people who have hardened their hearts, rejected Christ, and may never again have a coherent thought.

9. Nursing homes open doors to new relationships with those related to or associated with the residents.

10. Nursing homes provide a ministry environment where what really matters takes priority.

When’s the last time you visited someone in the hospital or nursing home? I admit, the sights, sounds, and smells are not always pleasant, but it’s a great opportunity to be a “Good Samaritan” and show the love of Christ to those who are suffering.

A nursing home ministry is something that a church can offically sponsor, or something that individual families can do by themselves on a weekly, monthly, or occasional basis. One thing’s for sure – nursing home residents always love visitors!