Love has many different guises. It’s not all about the romantic view of love which is portrayed in the media. In Greek, there are many different words to describe different kinds of love. C.S. Lewis has written a book called ‘The Four Loves’ which looks at the different Greek words for love: Storge is fondness or affection through familiarity (a brotherly love), especially between family members or people who have otherwise found themselves together by chance. Eros is romantic or sexual love (the words erotic and eroticism have their roots in this word). Philia is the love between friends, the strong bond existing between people who share a common interest or activity. Agape is unconditional love and is the word used in 1 John 4:8 and 16 when we read ‘God is love’. Other people have tried to define the different levels of love that we can have. Bernard of Clairvaux, for example, a twelfth-century monk, said there were four ‘degrees of love’: the first degree being to love one’s self for one’s own sake; the second ‘loving God for one’s own sake’ – in other words, for what we can get out of Him! This is perhaps the stage that many of us feel we are at: we love God for what He can do for us and what He can give us more than for who He actually is in Himself. But as we mature, we move to the third stage, ‘the love of God for God’s sake’ when we actually begin to value God for who He is more than for what He does. The fourth stage is ‘loving one’s self for God’s sake’, whereby there is a mutuality in love. God’s love for us actually permeates our love for God. Our own human wholeness is somehow affirmed in the love of God and all these other three stages are somehow completed.

Other books recognise that love is manifested in different ways: Gary Chapman’s ‘The Five Love Languages’ looks at how love can be expressed through physical touch, through time spent with loved ones, through gifts, through words of affirmation and through acts of service. It is often helpful to married couples to recognise that there are different ways of expressing love, for we often feel unloved if love is expressed in a ‘language’ with which we are not familiar.

We cannot be prescriptive about how we love God, but the fact remains that love has to be visible and demonstrable. Some ways that other Christians have found to do this through the ages include food banks, helping the unemployed with job applications, founding pregnancy crisis centres, housing the homeless, working against poverty, working with the addicted, campaigning against slavery and human trafficking, prison visiting. But love is also shown in faithfully helping with church outreaches: youth groups, coffee mornings, parent and toddler groups, schools’ ministries and so on.

The Radio 4 iPM news programme features a ‘New Year’s Honours awards’ where listeners nominate local people who are involved in outstanding community work. The winner this year was a youth worker in South London, Stu Thomson. When the interviewer asked him at the end of the interview why he had done this work so faithfully for so many years when so many of the people he had tried to help had been so violent and abusive towards him, he said that he did it because of his faith in God: ‘I know this is where God wants me to be at this moment.’ That kind of commitment to loving people because of God’s love for us and for them is played out over and over again in church communities the whole world over and we must never underestimate the power of our ‘ordinary’ love in the lives of ordinary people.
Interview with Stu Thomson, 5th January 2013

We also had two birthdays to celebrate:

Tonight we started a series looking at Christian maturity, or how to ‘grow up’ so that we can all attain ‘to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ’ (Eph 4:13 TNIV), growing to ‘become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.’ (Eph 4:14 TNIV) Maturity requires taking a long view, for growth is both complex and endless, but we need to be constantly growing and maturing if we are to be conformed into the image of Christ, which is God’s will and purpose for us all. (Rom 8:29 TNIV)

Ephesians 5:1-20 TNIV offers us some practical advice on what spiritual growth and maturity look like.

1. Walk in the way of love
Paul urges us to follow God’s examples or be imitators of God and this means walking in love as Christ did. The first step to maturity is knowing God as He reveals Himself to us – not as we imagine Him to be, not as we want Him to be, but as He is. We have to have ‘eyes wide open to the differences, the God we want and the God who is.’ (Casting Crowns, ‘Somewhere In the Middle’) Love is at the very heart of who God is and is therefore absolutely fundamental to our growing up. We can’t be mature if we don’t love. 1 Cor 13:1-8 TNIV shows us what love is like: not the mushy, sentimentalised, erotic version of love which is often presented to us from the world, but love in action, and love which is a response to the love we ourselves receive from God (see 1 John 4:19 TNIV). As we observe the sacrificial way Jesus lived on earth and see how He came not to be served but to serve, as we consider how He was not self-seeking but only lived to do the Father’s will, as we reflect on His willingness to lay aside majesty in order to embrace human likeness, we begin to see how to love and as we spend time with Him, coming alongside Him, taking on His yoke and learning from Him (Matt 11:29 TNIV), we find our lives are shaped into a life of love. We ‘walk’ in the way of love, just as we looked at ‘walking in the light’ when we were studying 1 John 1, meaning that this becomes our everyday standard of living.

2. As we grow, our behaviour changes
Eph 5:3-7 TNIV outlines some of the behaviour which needs to go if we are to grow in maturity. The work God does by His Spirit in our lives is internal or spiritual, but this is manifested in visible, practical ways: mainly in what we say and what we do. Our thoughts, speech and actions have to reflect God’s work in our lives. Often, this is not a comfortable process, for God disciplines those He loves (Heb 12:5-11 TNIV) and probes us to highlight areas that need to change. If we feel like we’re in the furnace of discipline right now, remember that God does this because He cares about our maturity and we need to change!

3. Find out what pleases the Lord
As we grow and mature, we want to find out what pleases God (Eph 5:10 TNIV) and this shapes how we live. There are many things we are clearly told please God. Four things we looked at were:
a) love
b) obedience
c) faith
d) thanksgiving

As we develop these characteristics and seek to develop our relationship with God (for this is all about relationship more than rules!), we will grow. Maturity will always predominantly feature love, for God is love and therefore if we are His children, we will be growing in love and walking in love. Our speech and actions will be changed to reflect His speech and actions. We become imitators of God, reflecting a family likeness. Love, servanthood, obedience, faith and thankfulness will be the signs that point us to how well we are growing, for these are the things we see in our great example, Jesus. (see Phil 2:1-11 TNIV)

Today is the second Sunday in Advent. Each Sunday traditionally looks at a key theme: the first Sunday looks at hope, the second peace, the third joy and the fourth love. So today Dave looked at the topic of peace, focussing on John 14:25-29 TNIV.

Here, the disciples were gathered in the upper room at the Last Supper. Jesus tells them that He will be leaving them, but they should not grieve as He will send the Holy Spirit to be their counsellor or advocate and He will give them His peace – not as the world gives to them. This peace is more than just the absence of war; it is a deep well-being, conveyed in the Hebrew word ‘Shalom’.

A story in the Old Testament which illustrates this kind of peace is found in 2 Kings 4:17-27 TNIV. The Shunammite woman has been hospitable towards the prophet Elisha and he has prayed for her to have a son. In this scene, however, the son dies. The woman, rather than arranging his funeral, does not even tell her husband that he has died, but instead goes to find Elisha. She tells her husband and Elisha’s servant that everything is all right, even though her natural feelings must have been deep grief and distress. She is able to display peace even in turmoil because she has confidence in Elisha and in the God he serves. Similarly, we have an anchor that will not move; we have wholeness and are at one with God, even when external circumstances may shake us. This is the kind of peace Jesus has promised us and He does not just deal with symptoms; He heals the disease!

Elisha restored the woman’s son to life. A great miracle occurred in her household, partly as a result of her confidence in God. We too can have confidence in God because so many prophecies concerning Jesus have already been fulfilled and because we are witnesses to how He transforms people’s lives. We have the presence of God with us at all times and therefore have access to peace with God and peace from God. We can have peace because we are assured that God is in control and that He loves us. Instead of complaining or moaning, we should give thanks and delight in the many opportunities God gives us to share His love.

Peace is found as we trust God and walk in faith. God has already done great things and will continue to work in our lives, in our church and in our community. His word will not return to Him void and so we can be sure that peace will triumph, heal and keep us as we walk with God.

We are officially in Advent, so I thought you might appreciate this music video featuring the song ‘Tell the World.’ It captures all the fun of Christmas with all the truth this season really has to bring. As we are praying this month about letting people know what Christmas means to us, I think this is an excellent vehicle for doing that! (Cliff Richard fans need to have a sense of humour: be warned!)
‘Tell the World’, the ultimate Christmas video by Push Company

I am always fascinated by answers to this question, because they are usually as diverse and wide-ranging as the people who make up a church! This is a definition of church written by Eugene Peterson in his commentary on Ephesians (‘Practise Resurrection’):

“Church is an appointed gathering of named people in particular places who practise a life of resurrection in a world in which death gets the biggest headlines… The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life, life out of death, life that trumps death, life that is the last word, Jesus life.” (Eugene Peterson, ‘Practise Resurrection’, P 12)

He goes on to say this is worked out in:
1) the worship of God in all the operations of the Trinity
2) the acceptance of a resurrection, born-from-above identity (identified in baptism)
3) the embrace of resurrection formation by eating and drinking Christ’s resurrection body and blood (at the Lord’s Table)
4) attentive reading of and obedience to the revelation of God in the Scriptures
5) prayer that cultivates an intimacy with realities that are inaccessible to our senses
6) confession and forgiveness of sins
7) working and speaking for peace and justice, healing and truth, sanctity and beauty
8) care for all the stuff of creation.

What’s your definition of ‘church’?