A number of years ago I pastored a church where many young men from difficult backgrounds started attending. I grew up with a "Brady Bunch" kind of family. Most of these young men had never known real unconditional love from a Father. Their lives were so different from mine but the way I was able to reach them was telling them, "I love you" and showing them my love for them was authentic. It radically changed our church. I believe this was Paul's challenge to the church in Romans 12:10
"Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another"
In the Greek, Paul's use of the phrase "kindly affectionate" means a love that is authentic, sincere, tender, and warm. This kind of love is expressed as friends that should love each other as family. He further stresses that point with "brotherly love". The Greek meaning behind the phrase is loving like a brother or sister.
This is tough in the American church, because we are taught to keep our space, to remain private, to not get involved, afraid to let people get too close for fear they won't like us. Paul pushes that mindset aside with the next phrase, " in honor giving preference". The idea here is that you love so much, you work to help others to succeed and rejoice when they do, you admire, esteem, respect someone so much that you only want the best for them.
Don't you wish church was like that? It doesn't start with someone else. It begins with you. Love authentically like we are family, look for and help others succeed, admire and respect everyone, and believe in them as if they are family.
We each make the difference as we trust God enough to love one another.
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