Why Doesn’t Society
See Christians as Loving as they expect?
Society or the secular world.
Secular things are not religious. Anything not affiliated with a church or faith can be called secular. If there's no religion involved, then you're in "the secular world" — as people sometimes call everything that exists outside of religion.
Christians/Church
The early Christian church had no buildings, at least not in the sense of what we would consider church buildings today. First century Christians were often persecuted and, as a result, often met in secret usually in homes. As the influence of Christianity spread, eventually buildings dedicated to worship were established and became what we know today as churches. In this sense, then, the church consists of people not buildings. Fellowship, worship and ministry are all conducted by people, not buildings. Church structures facilitate the role of God’s people, but they do not fulfill it.
The Christian church is not a building, but a body of believers united in Christ. Its role is to worship God, nurture and edify and reach out to a suffering world with the saving message of the gospel as well as the practical compassion and mercy exemplified in Christ.
The work of the Church
The church is not a building, but a body of believers with a specific nature and purpose. These biblical roles or ministries of the church are foundational to it. What are these roles? They are many, but key to any church are foundations in worship, edification and evangelism.
Worship is God-centered and Christ-centered. It is not about entertaining Christians with flashy displays or presentations, but about expressing our love by worshiping our Creator. We are to praise and glorify God in worship. As such, every Christian needs to be part of regular fellowship and worship.
Edification is also a role of the church. It involves edifying (improvement, instruction, or enlightenment, especially when morally or spiritually uplifting) believers, but also nurturing, building up or helping believers to mature in Christ. To this end, churches are tasked with a variety of ministries such as Bible study, continuing education in related areas, praying for one another, acts of genuine hospitality and more.
Evangelism is also a key role of the church. This means reaching out to a lost world with the Good News about Jesus. Since people often have questions or doubts about Christ and Christianity, knowing the truth and being able to defend it (apologetics) is also part of the role of the church. But beyond evangelism in the sense of reaching out with the gospel, the church must also express compassion and mercy tangibly by helping others.
In following Christ’s example to love others, the church, too, must seek to make a real difference in the world while not neglecting to share the message of Christ. If a church fails to fulfill any of these key roles – worship, edification, evangelism – then the church is not functioning as God intends. Granted, there are times when churches face challenges and struggles to one degree or another, but a healthy church seeks to overcome such challenges in a way that honors God and His intentions for His church.
Yes, the world has a distorted view of love. Christians do not live according to the secular definition of love, so we don’t appear loving when looked at through that filter. However, there is merit to certain aspects of society’s perception of love – like Phileo, Tolerance and Social Justice. Those correspond loosely to the Biblical principles of Unity, Forgiveness and Mercy. Are Christians doing those components of love well? If not, then we’re not living out society’s definition of love – or ours.
The Bible says our love for one another should shock, amaze and attract non-believers to Christ. Yet if what once was attractive about Christianity when we treated love as a verb (i.e. action and compassion toward all men and women, even “enemies) is no longer distinguishable from society’s view of love as a noun (i.e. positive feelings and emotions toward those who are like-minded), then Christianity will repel non-believers. Listen to Lord Jesus teachings, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness (uprightness, moral essence) is more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Mathew 5:20. Righteousness is the manifestation of Love as taught by my lord Jesus the Christ of God. Here love used as in the context of 1 Corinthians 13:4-9. That’s the situation our faith finds itself in today – one where culture has impacted a great deal, the Church more than churches are impacting culture
Receive it, Believe it and Live it!
