The following Devotional is Day 17 from Deconstructing: A Devotional For Restoring Faith After Church Hurt.

____________________________________

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” John 13:34-35 (MSG)

It’s hard to reconcile how the world sees Christians and church hurt with what scripture says about how the church should be. How did we get so far off course? There was a time when I believed everyone who hated Christians hated them because they simply didn’t love Jesus, so they didn’t understand. That may be true for some, but I don’t think that’s the reason anymore. They hate Christians because we boast about love but hate one another. The hypocrisy runs deep. 

It’s hard to recognize Christ in church when all your experience has told you that He isn’t there. He couldn’t be because there is so much hate and hurt. But I believe He is present; beyond the fact that we need to all work on loving one another, Jesus can’t unsave us. We can refuse to listen to Him; some walk away and reject him altogether, but Jesus is there with us still. He’s watching us make a fool of ourselves. We know we’ve participated in and experienced the effects of Christians not loving well. It’s a mess but not unredeemable. 

Deconstructing love is mind-bending, at least it has been for me. What is love? Jesus is love, but how do we love one another? I am still wrestling with it. But I know what love isn’t. Love isn’t hate, love isn’t earned or deserved, and love doesn’t abuse or manipulate to get something at the cost of someone else’s dignity. Love isn’t church hurt. 

When I was little, I remember a woman at church was going through something. Her friends grabbed a bunch of women willing to pray for her and then circled up, and that is what they did. My mom was one of them, and I just sat and watched, not comprehending what was happening, but I knew this was love. Some of those women were strangers to one another, but they stopped their Sunday agenda and prayed for someone they didn’t know. That day has stuck with me all these years, and I still think it is a beautiful example of love in motion. I experienced Jesus that day and didn’t even know him for myself yet. 

Question: How have you experienced knowing Jesus through the love of others? How did that moment impact you and your faith journey?

Jesus, thank you for loving us and allowing us to experience Your love through those around us. We’ve also experienced the opposite at the hands of those who share our faith; help us not let those experiences taint our view of who we are. We aren’t always great representatives of You ourselves, but You called us to follow You. May it be so. Amen.

If you enjoyed this devotional, please check out Deconstructing. I wrote this devotional for you and anyone who is wrestling through their spiritual abuse and church hurt to remind you that you are not alone; there is hope for restoration when we make our home in Jesus.