God did not give us a Spirit of fear, as we learned in the last blog post: “The Spirit God gave us,” the Holy Spirit, “does not make us timid”—fearful, cringing, holding back—“but gives us power” (2 Timothy 1:7).

But the Spirit God gave us is more than the Spirit of power. He’s also the Spirit of love.

Christians are supposed to be known by their love: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35, NIV).

Who is “one another”? Everyone.

“You mean Christians in other countries? Christians of a different color?”

Yes, that’s it. Now we’ve got it.

Love.

Back in the eighties, the church growth movement was really gaining traction. A pastor from another part of New York City came and said to me, “You know, your church is an anomaly.” He was very much into things like “five steps to grow your church.”

I said, “Why?”

He said, “Well, number one, you don’t have a parking lot. I had to park five blocks down 7th Avenue, Pastor Jim. I mean, why do people come here? A parking lot is the most important thing. We learned that in our church growth manual.”

I said, “Subway stops are nearby.”

Then he dropped the second issue: “The other thing is this. I don’t mean this in the wrong way, but you’ve got people from all over the place, all different colors. Churches grow fastest if they’re homogeneous.” In other words, if the people are all the same.

I said, “Brother, that’s a code word.” “Homogenous” means “Keep the blacks over there, the Latinos over there, and the whites meeting just with white people. Birds of a feather flock together.”

That kind of thinking does damage to the New Testament. In the early days of the church, Jews were considered less than human by the Gentiles, and Gentiles were called “dogs” by the Jews. But Christ broke down that barrier, and the churches had Jews and Gentiles together—like we should have people together today (see Ephesians 2:11–22).

Prejudice is a sign of ignorance and spiritual immaturity, because when God puts love in our hearts, we start to feel what God feels toward all people. And guess what God feels toward all people? He loves them.

If churches prefer not to be with certain people, they should be careful. God might give them their wish and keep them out of heaven. He’ll say to them, “Look, you wouldn’t like it here. We have every nation, every tribe, every tongue” (see Revelation 7:9).

When God’s love is in us, we love everybody.

I wonder how many churches, as heaven views us, are true Christian churches? Some have target groups by race or, worse than that, age or economic status.

“That lady’s from the shelter. She walks with a cane. Don’t let her sit in the front. That’s not the image we want to—”

That’s the way a great percentage of the Christian church feels, unfortunately.

Or a black pastor says, “Well, I can’t invite white people in here. A lot of the families would say, ‘I don’t want to go to church with that man.’”

Not true? Absolutely true. And above the pulpit, we have a sign saying “God is love.”

There’s more love between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. You think anyone cares what color a player is? They have only one question: “Can you play? If you can play, you’re my man.”

But leave it to the church to be two hundred years behind. Remember, in the South, it was often people pounding their Bibles who backed slavery. Try to justify slavery from the Bible. That one rankles me.

How do you think the Lord Jesus feels when people are singing “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,” and He knows that in the hearts of those people is, “Keep me away from other Christians”—whom He died for.

Jesus died for black people, white people, Latinos—everybody. And you and I don’t want to be around them? Oh, let’s be careful that we don’t end up in the last day saying, “Lord, Lord, did I not prophesy, heal, and use Your name?” and Jesus saying to us, “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. You knew nothing of My love” (see Matthew 7:22–23).

Love is from God. God is love.

We can understand all mysteries, have all knowledge, or speak in the tongues of angels. But if we don’t have love, we’re nothing (see 1 Corinthians 13:1–2).

Come on, let’s love each other.

Prayer

Lord, fill our hearts with Your love, and help us see every person the way You see them. Tear down every barrier that keeps us from loving, welcoming, and serving one another. Let Your love shine through our lives so that others may see You in us.

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