The Loveless Church

The Bible teacher told his class,“If you don’t love the Bible you don’t love truth and if you don’t love truth, you don’t love Jesus.” I agree, Christians love to talk about love, but the test of its authenticity can be pointed back to one’s attitude towards the Bible. The one who loves the Bible agrees with every word written within, even when they don’t understand or don’t like what’s written within. On the other hand, the one who disagrees, then decides to ignore, dismiss, reject or change it, the same has no love for all three. Given the reality that this is what Christians are doing with the Bible today, one has to say they make up what must be called, the loveless church!

In addition, the church that doesn’t love the Bible, the truth and Jesus doesn’t love people either! In all probability though, the loveless church is the one most likely to proudly throw 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 in the face of anyone who rebukes it for its compromising practices. It will even quote verse 6 love rejoices in the truth without giving it a second thought! Such is the power of deception now expressing itself in the mainstream church. A few years ago when people spoke of false prophets rising to deceive many, Matthew 24:11, they spoke of cults like Mormonism and Russellism, to name a couple. Today we can also speak of them as Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, and Charismatics – for all somewhere are abusing Bible truth.

To what extent in the coming days will lawlessness abound and the love of many in the church grow cold Matthew 24:12 is anyone’s guess, but I suspect Bible lovers, truth lovers, Jesus lovers and people lovers are not far away from finding out. The further a church moves from the Bible the more lawless and colder it becomes. Whatever the persecution set to come upon us from Muslims, Marxists, Globalists, Collectivists, God-hating governments and the like, similar can be expected to come from the loveless church! What the Christians of Hitler’s Germany experienced from the loveless church of that day gives us an idea of what might happen in our day. They didn’t hesitate to turn godly people over – all because they wanted to save their miserable religious hides!

Because of the way the mainstream media works (or doesn’t work!), it’s difficult to know the real truth of what’s happening in Egypt and Syria, but amongst all peoples being slaughtered, raped, violated and tortured presently, are Bible-loving, truth-loving, Jesus-loving Christians. True to the declaration of Genesis 16:12, we see the wild man raising his hand not only against his fellow Muslim but against every man. The Muslim man is screaming loudly and gaining the attention of the powers that be, the Christian man is crying softly and nobody gives damn! Where are the powers that be in the church? They’re slinking in their “spiritual” corners, scared as all hell. Why? They’re loveless!

That’s what loveless leaders do when the heat is on; it can’t be any other way for them. Yes, the word of God is still living and powerful, still sharper than any two-edged sword Hebrews 4:12; but not for them. You see, if you make a conscious decision to kick one piece of truth to the curb, it will not be long before you do that with another, then another. If you then continue to ignore warnings about your practice God will eventually give you over to what is in your heart. In trouble-free times all looks good. You can go on TV presenting your very best “looking good” face and most people will believe you are the person you appear to be. Discerning Christians know what you really are though, as do persecuted Christians.

So we are not surprised when such “powers” remain silent in these times; we know they have no power. They have no influence where it really matters either. But, the same thing applies to Christians who are not leaders – which is the purpose of this post. The cries coming from our persecuted Middle-Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ must not be allowed to fall on deaf ears so far as we are concerned here in the Western world. If we do allow it, then based on what God says about those who shut their ears to the cry of the poor, we should have every reason to expect our cries will not be heard when persecution comes our way Proverbs 21:13. What can we do? We can make it our business to pray and intercede for them on a daily basis.

For many Christians, this will mean you will have to press into God much more than you have ever done in the past. Ask God to reveal to you what is on His heart and on your heart. If the two don’t line up, then dump what’s on yours and embrace what’s on God’s. If you are one of those who’ve been ignoring, dismissing, rejecting or changing certain Scriptures, then the first thing the Holy Spirit will do is reveal that to you and prompt you to repent. Perhaps you haven’t consciously been doing that, but because you’ve been dieting on prosperity gospel or purpose driven lie messages, believing them to be the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then the Holy Spirit is going to show you the truth about that too. 

The Holy Spirit will show you such “gospel” messages have nothing to do with love except the love of money … your money! He will show you that lovers of money don’t serve God, they only serve themselves Matthew 6:24. Self-servers have always been major players of who and what makes up the loveless church regardless of how much they sing or talk about love. There’s no persecution for the committed diehards of these religious organizations up ahead, they’ve already succumbed to it without any pressure at all. Political correctness pressure brought them down; there’s no need for anything else. But persecute the true people of God they most certainly will, as will all firmly committed Bible compromisers. 

Satan the devil laughs at the loveless church, he knows its so-called power and authority is a pretense. But he never laughs at those who press into God. Curses yes, but never laughs! He knows spiritual power and authority comes to all who commit to seriously seeking God’s will through prayer and Bible study. He knows what that does to his own power and authority; it puts him on the back foot. Jesus outclassed him with every battle He had with him and that’s His promise to us regardless of whether we lose our physical lives or retain them. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you Luke 10:19.

The loveless church knows all the Scriptures, but just like the Scribes of Jesus’ day, that’s all it is for a large part – head knowledge. Besides, the fact that God blesses some of His word in that place is by no means an indication that He approves of their attitude and behavior. We must never lose sight of the reality of what Jesus will one day say to those who prophesied in His name, cast out demons in His name, and did many wonders in His name Matthew 7:21-23. He never knew them! As Bible Commentator Matthew Henry soberly warns us, “There is a storm coming that will try every man’s work. When God takes away the soul, where is the hope of the hypocrite?………May the Lord make us wise builders for eternity.” Indeed, indeed.

Pretribulational, premillennial-believing Christians, are not looking for the Antichrist to arrive on the scene, we’re looking for the return of Jesus Christ. That being said, many of our Middle-Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ are looking for His return too. But look what’s happening to them in the meantime. This could well be our experience soon too, so we need to be spiritually prepared for such a time. It’s not the Antichrist man killing those people; it is an antichrist spirit … the same antichrist spirit ruling in the loveless church. It’s just operating in a different way, that’s all – wearing a mask of religious sophistication and respectability similar to that of its boss, the angel of light 2 Corinthians 11:14.

But hidden beneath that entire pretense is an angel of death! Christians being filled with the word of God are, at the same time, being filled with boldness. They may not feel the reality of such, but that’s what’s taking place – it is the boldness of Jesus Christ. The righteous are as bold as a lion Proverbs 28:1. Christians not being filled with the word of God are being filled with fear! When the word of God goes in, things not of God get tossed out. When the word of God does not go in, things not of God get tossed in! Fear is one of those ‘things’. Wherever the antichrist spirit is, the spirit of fear is alongside. TRUTH is the enemy of both! Were that not the reality, there would be no persecutors and no persecution.

Christians filled with the word of God will pray for their persecuted brothers and sisters as led by the Holy Spirit of God; they will not pray as led by religious emotionalism and foolish human opinions. People in the loveless church are often frustrated because their prayers are not answered. Well, prayer answers come when our wills are aligned with the will of God, not with the will of the one praying. The former is selfless, the latter is selfish! The former is real, the latter is religious. The former knows Jesus, the latter doesn’t know Jesus. The former prays with belief, the latter prays with unbelief. The former is humble, the latter is arrogant. The former is on a pathway of spiritual liberty, the latter is on a pathway of spiritual slavery.

Another grand reason for Christians to be filled with the word of God – it means we’ll be filled with the Holy Spirit. And Him we are surely going to need when people in the loveless church start in on us in earnest. Jesus has told us in advance what we are to do – love them, bless them, do good to them and pray for them Matthew 5:44. None of that is possible to do without the Holy Spirit; that’s why it’s important to start pressing in to God now, creating a rock-solid faith that will enable us to withstand whatever is thrown at us. “Remember the word I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all those things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me” John 15:20-21.