Can anybody doubt the need for the increase of love in our world? Just today, October 20, 2011, the front page of the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports a city official arrested for beating a man and shattering bones in his face, parents allowing their teenager to keep marijuana and poisonous snakes in his room, and a man in authority using his power to secure sex from young girls. What is the cure for the destructive actions we read about in the paper every day? It is the love of God filling our lives so that we don’t keep trying to fill up our emptiness with power or pleasure or praise.
People who are in healthy small groups tend to increase their ability to love others. I see it in “Grief Support Groups.” As members of the groups share their experiences, discover what they have in common, and encourage each other, love naturally grows in their hearts. I believe this is what God wants for each of us and what God wants for our church: that we learn how to grow in our love for God and for others.
In our Real Love Groups, I see it, too. When people in the groups are able to tell the truth about their own sins and selfishness and talk together about how they are learning to gather the love they need and give it to others – even those who are angry and unloving toward them – they grow in love for one another.
Here is the Bible on the growth of love among members of the church in 1 Thessalonians 3:11 and 4:9 (Message). “May God our Father himself and our Master Jesus clear the road to you! And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you. . . . Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don't need me to tell you what to do. You're God-taught in these matters. Just love one another! You're already good at it. . . . Keep it up; get better and better at it. “
This is what our church is about: learning how to let the Master pour on the love so that it fills us and overflows from us.
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