The “Irreducible Core”
by Lenn Zeller, Director of Conference Care
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. (1 John 4:20)
Our “Irreducible Core” includes the call to love God (and to love others and make disciples as we go). But how exactly do we love God? Surely we love God through the devotion of our hearts, through our daily walk with and obedience to Him, through our personal piety and spiritual discipline, and through our worship and prayer. All of these are ways we express our adoration to God and our commitment to a growing relationship with Him.
If we are lacking in any of these personal expressions of faith, we run the risk of allowing that faith to weaken and wane, and open ourselves to the attacks of the enemy of our souls who would like nothing more than to minimize our impact for Christ and hinder our connection with Him. For pastors, the danger is doubly threatening, as it impedes not only our personal relationship with Christ but also our ability to minister with any real integrity or effectiveness. It behooves a pastor to diligently and regularly evaluate their own spiritual life and to maintain a rich and always deepening relationship with God.
But beyond that, we also love God by loving others. In the scripture quoted above, the apostle John makes it clear that if we say we love God, whom we cannot see, but do not love the people around us whom we can see, then we are simply deceiving ourselves. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. (1 John 4:20) This speaks clearly, of course, to how we treat one another within the body, the church. Is it truly possible to love God while at the same time disregarding the feelings or hurts of those around us? How can we claim to love God when we are treating fellow believers with disrespect or unkindness? How can we think that we are loving God when we treat His people with contempt, belittling or disparaging them for differing with us over matters of less than eternal importance? Sometimes we even think it is out of our love for God and our understanding of His truth that we treat others this way, but can that be right?
We love God by treating others with kindness, respect, compassion and sympathy. Even in times of dispute or conflict, we can still love God by continuing to love those who differ from us. In fact, to maintain our perspective, and to stay calm, reasonable, gentle and patient with those with whom we differ, may in fact be a greater expression of love than almost any other. After all, isn’t that how God treats us?
