How to Love Our Church
There is no such thing as a perfect church. We don’t find one in the New Testament, and we can’t find one today. A perfect church, this side of heaven, is impossible. But what is possible is a church that you can love.
We know this because the apostle Paul loved the church at Philippi — and I don’t mean he loved this church in a general or principled way, but this is particular and genuine love. That’s clear in these verses right from the start.
Now at one level, Paul’s introduction in Chapter 1 is pretty standard. Ancient letters always started with some personal reflections and thanksgiving — so that’s something we’d expect — but Paul goes above and beyond the normal and he gets deeply personal and openly affectionate. Just listen to his language here. He says:
Verse 3: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.”
Verse 7: “I hold you in my heart”
Verse 8: “I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus”
Paul really loved this church. That’s obvious in what he says, but okay, we might ask: So what? Why does this matter? So the apostle Paul loved a local church in the first century and that’s great, but what does that have to do with us?
Well, if it’s possible for Paul to love a local church, then it’s possible for us to love a local church, and we can learn from his example.
So here’s the question I’m bringing to this passage:
Are there lessons we could glean from Saint Paul’s love for the church in Philippi that might shape our love for our church in St. Paul?
What are some observations of Paul’s love for this church that could help us in our love for our church?
That’s the question I’m asking, and I’ve got three observations I want to show you but even before we get there, I need to step back for a minute and question the premise: Is it desirable to love the church that you’re part of? Is loving your church a good and worthy ambition?
Or, I’ll put it this way: Should we love our church the way Paul loved this church? And again, we’re not talking about general or principled love, but particular, genuine love. Should we love our church like that?
I think the answer is Yes. We should aspire to love our church the way Paul loved the church at Philippi. That is a good and worthy ambition, but I could imagine that this is a debatable topic.
Why Love the Church?
Some might think that the main thing is just being part of a church no matter how you feel about it. “You’re part of a church and you put up with it. It’s all about commitment!”
Others might have a looser idea and think that you don’t need to love your church, and you don’t even really need to be committed to it, just as long as you’re a Christian and you stay out of trouble and you show up every now and then, you’re fine.
So when I say that it is good and right to love the church that you’re part of, am I being too idealistic or too extreme?
I’d say neither. Not at all.
I think that you should love the church that you’re part of — if you’re part of this church (our church) you should love our church, for three reasons:
Jesus commanded it
Jesus empowers it
The church is precious
1) Jesus commanded it.
John 13:34,
“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.”
That applies to our church.
2) Jesus empowers it.
1 John 4:7–9, 19
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”
As John says a few verses later …
“We love because he first loved us.”
The truth is, we’re not ever going to be able to love anybody truly until we understand God’s love for us. And that’s the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts. Do you know yourself to be loved by God? And that his love is a Never-Stopping, Never-Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. God’s love for us in Christ is the power of our love for one another.
3) the church is precious.
This is just being practical: we should love our church because the local church is essential to following Jesus in this world, and one day your life in this world is going to be over, and on that day, all that will matter is Jesus, and so who you are following Jesus with now really matters. Track with me here: who you are following Jesus with in this life, one day will be who you followed Jesus with. And that’s super important. Our lives together as a church is more precious that we realize, and I believe it’s too precious not to love. We should love our church.
And Paul can help us with this in Philippians 1, verses 3–8. I want to show you three observations of Paul’s love for this church, and then we’re gonna turn them into lessons for how we love our church.
Here’s the first observation.
1) Paul thanked God for this church when he prayed for them. (verses 3–4)
We see this in verses 3 and 4.
Paul says,
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy.”
This is pretty straightforward, but notice two things:
First, Paul prayed for this church. Second, Paul thanked God for this church.
“Every Prayer of Mine”
First, we know that Paul is praying for this church because he says,
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all…”
The mention of “prayer” in verse 4 explains what he means by “remembrance” in verse 3.
This means that Paul is not just randomly remembering this church and then giving thanks for them. It’s not that the church of Philippi just pops in his head and that makes him thankful, but Paul connects the remembering to praying. He remembers the church and he prays for the church.
Now, is it the remembering the church that leads to the praying or is it the praying that leads to the remembering?
We don’t know and that’s fine — we just need to see that Paul prayed for this church as a habit: he says “every prayer of mine for you all.” And every time Paul prayed, he thanked God for them.
“I Thank My God”
This is important. And really, it gets into a larger topic on thanksgiving, and I won’t spend a lot of time on this, but I just want to remind you that thanksgiving is a choice. It’s not only an involuntary reaction, but thanksgiving is a heart-attitude and its expression is something we choose to do. Thanksgiving is a discipline.
That’s why, in the Bible Reading Guide, that first little box each day says “Gratitude.” I can’t commend to you enough the habit of starting everyday by thanking God — knowing that some days will be harder than others.
Somedays all we can come up with is, “Thank you, Father, that I’m here. Thank you for waking me up.” This is a discipline and it’s one that shapes us. The more we give thanks, the more thankful we become. We can choose to give thanks.
That’s what Paul is doing here for this church. Because there are other things that came into his mind when we thought about this church! They had some unity issues. There were some members of this church who were not getting along. This was not a perfect church, but Paul loved this church, and he prayed for this church, and every time he did, he thanked God for them! Of all the things he could have prayed, and a lot of things he probably did pray about as he kept praying, he made a point to thank God.
Application
So what’s the lesson for us? It’s that we do what Paul did. Would you make it a habit to pray for our church and thank God for her?
And yeah, there are other things to pray about, and we’ll get there, but first, from hearts that are mainly thankful, let’s choose to give thanks to God in prayer. Just count the blessings of God to us! Let’s be amazed that God has saved us and that he’s brought us together to follow Jesus in this life.
Let’s pray for our church and thank God for her. That’s the first observation/lesson.
Here’s the second.
2) Paul knew this church well enough to be confident of God’s work in them. (verses 6–7)
This is in verses 6 and 7, and verse 6 is a verse you’ve probably heard before. I love this verse and this is a favorite verse for a lot of Christians because it highlights God’s faithfulness in our perseverance.
That’s the theology behind this verse. God will lead us all the way home. He will complete what he started. Pretty much every time Philippians 1:6 is quoted, it’s to support that truth, and amen, but notice the context of verse 6.
Paul loves this church, he prays for this church, he thanks God for this church; they’ve got a long history of partnership in the gospel, and then he starts verse 6 with, “I’m sure of this” or more literally, “I have been convinced of this… that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
This is an amazing statement. Paul is saying, I have become personally convinced that one day you are going to stand before Jesus in a glorified body.
This kind of statement cannot be said about everyone. Paul does not say this about everyone, so then how can he say it about the church in Philippi?
Well, it’s because he knows this church well enough to know that their faith is real. That’s what he says in verse 7.
“Because I Hold You in My Heart”
Verse 7 is meant to explain verse 6. It’s like Paul knows that what he says in verse 6 is bold. It’s a radical statement. This would have turned some heads. So in verse 7 he explains,
“It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart.”
That’s Paul’s argument?!
He has just said that he’s sure that this church, the individuals of this church, are going to persevere. God will save them completely. They are going to see Jesus one day — and his rationale for that confidence is: I've got you right here in the heart!
That’s not exactly an airtight theological argument. I don’t know if that would pass in my kids’ logic class.
See, Paul isn’t making an argument here, he’s being personal. He is appealing to his relationship. He has this church in his heart, which means, he has a close-up, knows-them-by-name relationship, and in that relationship, through their partnership in the gospel, he has gotten to know them well enough to see that they’re the real deal. He’s seen their lives. He’s seen where they came from. He’s seen what they’ve been through. Paul knows this church well enough to be confident of God’s work in them, and he tells them.
So what’s the lesson for us?
Application
As an aspiration, we want to be a church that is known well enough by one another such that we can say to one another with confidence, You’re gonna make it. That’s like the point of covenant membership! We want to be that kind of church.
So here’s the application: get to know one another for this purpose. Cities Church, get to know other members of this church well enough that you can say to them, You’re going to see Jesus one day.
Know others well enough so that you can say that, and then say it.
And I realize that no one of us is going to know well every single member of this church — that’s not expected — but we all can know and be known by some, and if each one of us is doing that for some, then everyone will know and be known. That make sense? That’s why we have groups.
Paul knew the church at Philippi well enough to be confident of God’s work in them and he told them. Let’s do the same at our church.
Third observation:
3) Paul partnered with this church for the sake of the gospel. (verses 5, 7–8)
Now, the thing that’s behind Paul’s love for this church (and his joy in them, and how he knows them, and why he’s confident of God’s work in them) all comes back to their partnership in the gospel. Paul mentions this first in verse 3 (it’s the ground for why he prays for them with joy). He mentions it again in verse 7 to explain how he knows them so well.
And the word he uses for “partnership” is the New Testament word that most times is translated as “fellowship.” He says in verse 7 “you are all partakers with me of grace.” This is an edifying participation, a fellowship. So when we see the phrase in verse 3, “partnership in the gospel,” we should think: fellowship in the gospel. That’s what he’s saying.
And I think it’s important to keep “fellowship” in mind because it guards us against two mistaken mindsets in gospel partnerships, a functional mindset and an idle mindset. We don’t want either of those.
The functional mindset is one that is utilitarian. The main concern is not the quality or the nature of the partnership, but it’s all about the bottom line. Are we seeing results? Is it effective? Are you hitting your numbers? That’s your work environment, right?
Sometimes at work you get stuck with co-workers who maybe are not your favorite, but you just gotta soldier through and get it done. We see this sometimes in professional sports. There’s a team that has an inter-conflict, they don’t really get along, but they have to lay the conflict aside and do their job, because they’re paid to perform and to win. It’s all about the bottom line.
Well, that’s not what is going on here between Paul and the church at Philippi. This is not a mechanical, utilitarian partnership, but it’s a true fellowship. There’s mutual love. This is a friendship in the gospel.
And the “in the gospel” part is what guards us against the other mistaken mindset, which is an idle mindset. See, Paul doesn’t just say: Hey, we have fellowship. It’s good to have fellowship. I’m glad we have fellowship. Isn’t fellowship great? No, that’s not what this is. This is fellowship on mission.
They love each other, and that’s great. They probably love to be together, and that’s great. But they’re not just hanging out, they’re trying to change the world.
They are pulling together their resources and their energies for the sake of the gospel, and it cost them. This was not an easy, picturesque partnership where everything they touch turned to gold. No!
Paul is in prison when he writes this letter! Epaphroditus almost died going back and forth for Paul and this church! This fellowship that they had was in the trenches of gospel witness and gospel advance that all Hell tried to stop. They were friends who remained friends through the ups and downs of costly action.
See, fellowship in the gospel is active enough fellowship to see real gospel advance and it’s sincere enough fellowship to stick together when things go badly … even when it’s inconvenient, when it hurts, when there’s imprisonment. This is an incredible partnership. I want this for us!
Application
Fellowship in the gospel means we’re giving ourselves to something bigger than ourselves and we’re giving ourselves together as friends.
There’s an old D. L. Moody quote when he said something like “The world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him.”
And I just want to borrow that quote and basically change everything about it, but I want to say:
Oh, that the Twin Cities would see God at work in a church that has true fellowship in the gospel! — a church that loves one another and a church that is serious about Jesus getting all the glory whatever it takes.
It’s not idealistic to want that for our church, or to believe that we could have it. We can. God can do it.
We’re never going to be a perfect church — that’s impossible this side of heaven — but we can be a church that loves one another for the sake of the gospel, and Paul can help us.
Three lessons to take with us:
Pray for our church and give thanks to God for her.
Know others in this church well enough to be confident of God’s work in them.
Let’s have true fellowship in the gospel.
Let’s go wide-open in spending our lives and in being spent for the sake of the gospel overcoming these Twin Cities and beyond. We want Jesus in all of his glory and love and joy to be impossible to ignore.
That’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
Most of this sermon has been all observation and application (Paul did this, we can too) — but where’s the gospel?
It comes back to the truth that we love because God first loved us. And he has proven his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for us. Far be it from us to boast except in the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord! His death for us is everything. And that’s what we remember at this Table.
To this we hold, our hope is only Jesus
For our lives are wholly bound to His
If that’s your confession, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, we invite you to eat and drink with us this morning.
