By Reverend Dr. Charles R. Watkins, Jr., Columnist
Based on Biblical Text: 1 Thessalonians 3:12 (NRSV)
“And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you.”
The greatest quality in the world is love. Without love, we are nothing and cannot have abundant life. The Apostle Paul was aware of this. His prayer to God was that the Thessalonian church and its believers might grow more and more in love. Paul knew that the church that would be a model to others is a church that has a strong and abiding love. The model church exhibits an intense love for God and one another.
Paul prays to God, our Father, reminding us that the God we serve is not just “out there” ruling and reigning in some far-removed place but, is in fact, right here with us actively participating in our lives just as an earthly father participates in the lives of his children. In other words, God, our Father, is intimately involved in our lives. We see Paul approach like a child approaches his father. A child requests of his father, knowing that his father will hear and answer.
Paul prays to our Lord Jesus Christ, who has existed eternally in heaven but so loved us that he would become our Lord. He would come to earth in the flesh and dwell among us. The depth of Paul’s prayer reveals to us that both the Father and the Son have the nature of God. The Father and the Son have co-existed eternally and continue to reign eternally.
Paul prays for what he knows is the only solution to the people’s dilemma. He prays for their need to love. Why, because love is the necessary foundation for every church that seeks to flourish in the work of the Lord. If the church of Jesus Christ is to grow, it must allow the love of God to multiply and overflow into the world.
God can increase our love and cause our love to overflow toward others. The overflowing love of God can perfect that which is lacking in our conviction and can guide and direct all our efforts. This is our mandate if we are to be the church in our community that would be a model to others. God’s overflowing love will move us to not only encourage the unsteady among our congregation, but also the unsteady “out there” in the world as well. We will be able not only to strengthen the weak within our walls but also to strengthen the weak outside of our walls. God’s overflowing love will allow us to inspire not only the dispirited on our roles, but also the discouraged in our community. We will be moved not just to feed the hungry in our membership, but also to reach beyond our membership to the hungry who do not know the Lord.
As we aspire to be a church in our community that stands boldly as a model to others, our prayer is that we are strengthened and encouraged to carry God’s overflowing love into all the world. The model church loves God with the entirety of its heart, mind, and soul. It, just as importantly, extends that same love to its neighbor. We know by faith that there is no relationship that God’s love cannot strengthen. We are encouraged that there is no fellowship that his love cannot enhance, no heart that his love cannot soften, nor is there any pain that his love cannot relieve.
Lord, we seek to be a church in our community that stands as a model to others, and our prayer is that you make us blameless, pure, holy, and our pathway sure.
The Reverend Dr. Charles R. Watkins, Jr., is the pastor of James Chapel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
