Loving Your Community

If your church disappeared tomorrow, would anyone in the community notice?

Would a neighbor say, “They were there when the flood came. They fed families, served at the school, and walked with us when someone died. That church loved this community when we needed it most”?

Jesus did not leave His people to wonder how we should relate to those around us. He gave a command that is as direct as it is demanding: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love God and love your neighbor

In Matthew 22, a religious leader asks Jesus which commandment is greatest. Jesus answers:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.… And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37, 39, ESV)

The religious teachers counted 613 commands in the Law, but Jesus brought them back to the heart of it all. Love God. Love your neighbor. Every other command hangs on these two.

Loving our community is not an optional ministry strategy. It is part of Christian obedience.

Love does not abandon truth

Our communities are filled with people who believe, vote, worship, and live differently than we do. Christians are still called to love every one of them.

Love does not require us to surrender our convictions. Jesus never separated grace from truth, and His followers should not either. We can hold firmly to Scripture while treating people with dignity, patience, kindness, and respect. Disagreement is never permission to withdraw love.

The gospel fuels our love. We remember that Christ moved toward us while we were still sinners, so we move toward others with the same grace we have received.

Love cannot meet every need

No church can meet every need in its community. The needs are too great, and our resources are limited. Faithful stewardship requires us to choose carefully where we can serve well.

It also requires humility. Another church or ministry may already be meeting a need with excellence. Learn who they are. Celebrate their work. Partner when it makes sense, and refer people when they can help better than you can. We are not competitors. We are part of the same body.

Love shares the gospel

Good works matter, but physical help alone cannot meet a person’s deepest need. People need forgiveness, reconciliation with God, and new life in Christ.

In Mark 2, friends carry a paralyzed man to Jesus. Jesus cares about the man’s body, but He first addresses his soul: “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5, ESV). Then He heals him in full view of the crowd.

Christians should care for both body and soul. We serve without turning every act of kindness into a sales pitch, and we refuse to hide the hope that motivates our service. Love shows the gospel and speaks it.

Love takes action

James warns against offering kind words without practical help:

“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15–16, ESV)

Christian love engages our hands and feet. We say it, and we live it.

Three marks of a church that loves its community

Empathy

Empathy begins by seeing another person’s need and imagining what it would be like to stand in that person’s place.

Jesus illustrates this in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37). A man is beaten, robbed, and left beside the road. A priest sees him and passes by. A Levite does the same. The Samaritan sees him and has compassion.

Ask God for a heart that notices. Pray, “Do not let me pass by the people You are calling me to love.” When a need comes into view, pause long enough to ask what faithful love requires.

Action

Compassion moved the Samaritan’s feet. He went to the injured man, treated his wounds, carried him to safety, and arranged for his care.

Where does your heart respond most quickly? Perhaps you care deeply about children, people with disabilities, students, senior adults, immigrants, or people facing mental illness, addiction, hunger, or grief. God can use your experience, relationships, abilities, and resources to meet needs in those places.

You do not have to solve everything. Start by doing the good that is in front of you.

Sacrifice

The Samaritan gave his time, comfort, supplies, transportation, and money. Love cost him something.

Loving a community will cost us too. It may interrupt a schedule, stretch a budget, or place us beside people whose lives are complicated. Christian love is willing to be inconvenienced because Jesus did more than offer sympathy from a distance. He came near.

Would your community miss you?

A church should be known for more than its building, programs, or weekend services. It should be known as a people who tell the truth about Jesus and embody His love in practical ways.

Ask God to show you one need you can see, one person you can serve, and one step you can take. Then move toward your neighbor with the love of Christ.

Adapted from a sermon by Jarrett Stephens.