Where Is The Love

Where Is The Love…A House Divided

Posted on July 9, 2011 by S. Thurston

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste ; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. ” (Matthew 12:25)

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling ; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming ; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

To get straight to the point, something is wrong. Something is very very wrong. We claim to be Christians. We smile in each other’s faces. We even create cliques of churches, commonly known as associations of churches. We organize these cliques at the national, state, and local levels. As individual believers, congregations, and associations, we all claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. All claim to do the work of the Lord.

Yet…

Amongst the African American (Black American) community, it is normal for churches to be in competition with one another, and not work together because of a desire for their name to be on the marquee. And as we peer inside of so many and so many of these churches, we find all forms of hatred, greed, lust, and religious hypocracy taking place. We find people that call themselves Pastors, being served instead of being servers of which Jesus commanded them to be, we find such ministers lording themselves over the flock of the Lord in disobedience to what the LORD commanded. And we find such ministers allowing themselves to be glorifed and worshipped instead of directing all worship and glory unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

All such things, on the part of such individuals, congregations, and ministers, have either destroyed or otherwise diminished the impact of Jesus Christ on a person’s life. And before the very eyes of the Most High God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, His children are being destroyed in the very neighborhoods that His house resides. And because of this foolishness that we do, it is no wonder that so many who would come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness, salvation, and deliverance instead turn around and walk back out and into the world.

And anyone that tries to say that these things are not true, need only look at the statistics regarding the overall condition of Black people in this country. Despite all the government programs and monies spent on black people, to address these issues, we are still at the top of the charts in unemployment, displacement, murder, incarceration, aids, cancer, heart disease, poverty, drug addictions, crimes, ect. We are still at the bottom of the list in areas like education.

And if nothing else has proven more true, it is this…

We can spend all the money we want on these issues, but without Lord Jesus Christ, we are wasting our time. Without us coming together in true godly love, working as one body in Jesus Christ, as He commanded us to do, without this, we will truly be destroyed. Destroyed not by the white man, not by the government, not by “they”, but instead by our lack of faith in God, and our deficient belief in the ability for Jesus Christ to enable us to be used by God to address the issues His children face on earth.

The issue is this. If we cannot truly recognized that because of what Jesus Christ did for us on that tree, where He died and bled so that we may be forgiven, saved unto eternal life, and delivered from the bondage of sin, then nothing else we do in this life will matter nor bear fruit.