As I continue to preach through 1 Corinthians, focusing on Paul’s explanation of love being “the most excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31), I have to remind myself – all of us, actually – that Paul wrote this letter to a body of believers who were missing the point of God’s love (chapter 13), namely the fulfillment of God’s plan through Jesus’ death and resurrection (chapter 15). Because God loves the people he created and despite our ongoing sinful efforts to separate ourselves from God and others, he sent his Son Jesus to restore us to himself. John wrote, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
God’s love reveals God’s purpose. Again, John wrote, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). I’m sure we understand this at a fundamental level, which is very personal. However, while it is important that each person know and understand the Good News of God’s love that leads to salvation through faith in Jesus, it is also important that we, the church as a whole, understand where that love should lead us. Since God’s love reveals God’s purpose of restoring sinful people to himself, the church must understand that our purpose, our mission is to participate in God’s work of restoration. Paul explains God’s purpose for the church this way, writing in Ephesians 3:10-12:
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
God’s purpose for the church is to reveal the fulfillment of his plan to reconcile the world to himself through Jesus.
Unfortunately, throughout the history of the church, we, the church, have missed the point or simply shirked our responsibility to fulfill our purpose. Many times, as we’ve seen with the church in Corinth, many individuals within the church have focused solely on their own salvation – getting it and keeping it – at the expense of the church and its unity as the body of Christ and at the expense of the world that still needs to hear, see, and experience God’s restoring love. As individuals focus on their own wants and needs, their own faith, gifts, and experiences, they lose sight of the Good News of God’s love for the world and keep it to themselves. That’s when the church becomes the “holy huddle,” a collection of people who gather around God because of what he gives, being content to spend a few hours together Sunday morning, singing the right songs, hearing the right words, and doing the right things. It sounds right; it looks right; it might even feel right, but it’s not quite right.
Church, if that’s as far as we’re going to take our faith, we need to restore our purpose. Peter explains our purpose as the church in this way, writing in 1 Peter 2:9-12:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Yes, we need to gather and praise God for who he is and what he has done through Jesus, but our purpose goes further than that. We need to keep our focus on Christ: knowing him, following him, reflecting him, and leading other people to him. We need to share his love and grace that we ourselves have received.