Our churches are experts at so many wonderful things. We know how to program services and create experiences that draw people in. We understand worship teams and volunteer management like never before. We’ve designed all kinds of children’s services and youth outreaches. We’re proficient at raising money and building new worship centers. We have experts in church growth and city reaching. We have specialists in ‘boomers’, ‘busters’, ‘gen-xers’ ‘millenials’ and whatever generation next is.

We tend to be a little too good at pinpointing others faults and judging another’s sins, but there is one area of expertise where local church communities consistently struggle, one chink in the armor of spiritual know-how and practical competence that keeps us deficient. It is the central issue in worship but our seminars and conferences don’t teach us how to do it. I haven’t heard many sermons on it and there seems to be a lack of equipping for this particular task in the myriad of training tools and impartation.

Jesus told a group of so-called spiritual experts that it was the most important of all the commands and in fact provided a framework for understanding and obeying all other commands (Mt. 22:34-40 & Mk. 12:28-34). This challenging issue for our churches and the missing ingredient in many of our worship services is love. Our churches, indeed our people, need to be experts in the art of loving one another.

The seventh chapter of Luke paints one of the most beautiful pictures of worship and devotion found in the Scriptures. If we look closely we find the central theme of this story turns out to be love.

Jesus had accepted an invitation for dinner from Simon, the Pharisee. All seemed to be going well as dinner and conversation flowed at a leisurely pace—until the arrival of an uninvited guest. A woman “who had lived a sinful life” somehow found her way into the house and stood behind Jesus. At first no one noticed her, but then she crumbled at Jesus feet and began crying—just a little at first, but it grew into weeping and then sobbing.

Suddenly, she broke open a jar of perfume and began pouring it on Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair. Then she started kissing them. Simon couldn’t believe Jesus was allowing this woman to touch him like that. And it almost appeared as if Jesus was enjoying it! Just then, Jesus broke through the uneasiness and said, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” Jesus proceeded to tell a story about two men who had debts canceled by a moneylender—one man had a large debt and the other a small one. Jesus finished with a question, “Now which of them will love him more?” Simon, unnerved by the question, began to sense that Jesus was up to something. Simon tried to sound convinced. “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled,” he said.

In his next words, Jesus described for Simon and everyone else in the room one of the secrets of honest, heart-felt, life giving worship. It was right there for all of them to see, but they were embarrassed by the intimacy of it. The passion of the moment was distracting for them—it was uncomfortable. This woman had done something so beautiful for Jesus, and the only one who recognized its beauty and simplicity was Jesus himself. Simon and the others were hung up on protocol and religious behavior. Jesus finished his reprimand towards Simon with this statement, “Her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

The statement hits me hard even now. Jesus is talking about something that Simon isn’t even close to understanding. You see this story is not about the woman and how sinful she was. This story is about Simon’s lack of love. Simon thought this woman’s actions inappropriate, but Jesus was making the case for a depth of love that leads to extravagant devotion. Some of our churches do not worship extravagantly, because we don’t know how to love.

First John 3:16 says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” Love must be extravagant. Love is overwhelming, overtaking and unrelenting. The very nature of love is consuming. You can’t love someone “a little”. You can’t “sort of” be in love with someone. You are either wildly, madly and hopelessly in love or you’re not. I learned this lesson the hard way through an awkward courtship with my wife while we were both in college. I was scared of the commitment to marriage and she was unwilling to give her heart to me completely unless I was willing to surrender to the totality of love. Thank God I did! But I digress. God defines love for us by giving his all through Jesus Christ and then let’s us know that we should follow his example and surrender completely to love towards one another.

We continue in verse 17 with John defining for us how love works among the fellowship of believers explaining its impact on our worship. “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? (18) Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (19) This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence…”

Do you see it? The presence of God settles upon our hearts when we love one another. Our worship becomes strong and powerful with God’s presence when we love each other. And not just with our words, we must love one another with our actions. This is the very thing that shows that we belong to the truth and that gives us confidence in God’s presence. In a word, worship. But wait, there’s more.

I John 4:11 says, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (12) No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” The implication here is that we experience God through the love of other people. God is made real and present among us when we become experts in love for one another. This point is made clearer in verse 20, which says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, who he has not seen. (21) And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

Worship is about loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mk. 12:30), but it is impossible to enter into this kind of worship and loving relationship with God unless we learn how to love one another. You wonder why worship is not powerful? Look around and see if people love one another. Worship seems flat and uninspiring? It may not be the musicians, it may be the resounding gong or clanging cymbal you hear coming from the lack of love in your church (I Corinthians 13:1). 

Back to the woman at Jesus’ feet: she had probably been told by men all of her adult life that she was only good for one thing. And men like Simon inevitably told her that she was good for nothing. Her concept of love was no doubt warped and confused. But, something had happened to her. The compassion she saw in the eyes and actions of Jesus changed her heart. Her concept of love was transformed. The so-called inappropriate display of affection and devotion was actually a rebirth of knowing how to love…purely, innocently and totally. What once was strange and out of reach was now a surge of emotion and trust. It was an outpouring of gratitude and joy that she had finally found love. And love had finally found her.

Simon had no love in his heart for anyone but himself, and Jesus rebuked him for it. If we want our worship to be full and strong with the presence of God, we must love one another like Christ loved us, totally, completely and unreservedly. It’s only when we become experts in love that our worship will begin to take on the characteristics of power and presence that changes peoples’ lives.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 5:11 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.