Pastor's Blog: "To Know Is to Love"
| | Dr. Wayne Splawn
“The heart cannot love what the mind does not know.”
This quote from Jen Wilkin, a well-known theologian and Bible teacher, is so helpful. Her point is that our love for God is directly related to our knowledge of God. If we want to grow in our love for God, which according to Jesus is the greatest and first commandment for his followers, we ought to give ourselves to studying the character of God revealed in his word. The old saying, “To know him is to love him” is most certainly true when it comes to God.
I think the connection between knowledge and love holds when it comes to our relationships with other people. For example, my love for my wife and my children vastly exceeds my love for a casual acquaintance. This is due in large part to the fact that I have spent so much time with Mary and my children over the years that I have developed a deeper knowledge of who they are. If you want to love someone, you must get to know them better. To get to know them better, you must spend more time with them. The more you love someone, the more motivated you are to teach their Sunday School class, watch their children in the nursery, pray for them, show up to attend a Growth Group with them, and check in on them when you notice they have been absent.
As I think about the ways the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted congregational life, one of my chief concerns is the lasting negative impact the pandemic has had on our patterns of gathering. The church is not alone in this. Just last night I had dinner in a local fast-food restaurant. Prior to the pandemic, the dining room was usually crowded and bustling with people. Last night, however, there were only a few people spread out across the dining room while the drive-thru line wrapped around the building. Where we once would have eaten together with others, many of us have gotten used to picking up food and eating in the comfort of our homes. We are certainly exposed to fewer germs, but we also have less opportunities to bump into a family we know and spend some time catching up over dinner.
When I come to church on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights, I have noticed changes in our patterns of congregating. I am grateful that many who have physical conditions that limit their ability to attend in-person worship services, Bible studies, and committee meetings have benefited from the ability to access such experiences via Zoom or livestream. However, I must admit that I am concerned that our ability to be “present” from anywhere will ultimately undermine the type of fellowship that occurs when we make the effort and sacrifices necessary to gather in-person as we are able. I am not interested in recording higher attendance numbers for the sake of recording numbers. But I am interested in church members being in community with other church members, so that we might develop deeper relationships that will lead to a more sincere love for one another. If we do not have genuine Christian love at the heart of our fellowship we simply cannot be the type of church Jesus would have us to be.
I challenge you to spend some time thinking about your level of connection with others at Mountain Brook Baptist Church. Spend some time writing down a list of people you know and love at our church. Additionally, write down a list of people you think know and love you. If these lists are shorter than you would like for them to be, I want you to prayerfully consider how the Lord might be calling you to be more fully present and invested in the life of our church. Please email me or call me if you would like to have a conversation about ways you can be connected more deeply to others in our church. I sincerely believe your spiritual growth and the spiritual growth of others will benefit greatly from your involvement.
"For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another" (1 John 3:11 ESV)