All We Need is Love... or is it All we Need?

I hear so many these days saying, "we don't need to argue doctrine" and "all we need to focus on is winning the lost" and so forth. While reaching the lost should be our number one interest, it shouldn't be our ONLY interest!

Along these lines it makes me wonder, if evangelism is the only calling we should be involved in, then what do we do with Ephesians 4:11? What about the other gifting and callings? If our only purpose is to reach the lost with Jesus' love... Then what happens to the lost after they're won? If there is no other purpose to life than that, then they may as well move on up to heaven. I’m reminded of babies. Once they're born into this world, you don't just let the loose to fend for themselves, do you?? No, of course not! You nurture, train, feed, teach, discipline, and so forth, so that when they are grown, they can take what they've learned and continue to mature and grow as a person. The same is true in relation to spiritual things. When someone is newly born again, they can't simply be left to themselves. They need teaching, training, discipline, and such to help them develop, grow, and mature spiritually. Paul talked about this on multiple occasions, as well as other New Testament authors! Paul taught that we are to grow and develop to become fully matured, that his purpose was to aid in teaching and helping others in their spiritual growth.

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” - Colossians 1:28-29

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” – Ephesians 4:11-16

Did this end during Paul’s time? Are we only simply called to only evangelism and only telling others of Jesus’ love? Not to diminish those things by any means, because we all need to know how dearly we are loved and treasured by our heavenly Father. But in regards to this, I'm inclined to think, from what I see in the Word, that there is more to Christian living than winning the lost. Once they have been won, they have to be trained and discipled, but if everyone is only focused on evangelism who will train them? Who will teach them sound doctrine? Who will help them grow up spiritually? My friends, I'm tired of the cliché statements that all we need to do is "love" and that we don't need to be concerned with doctrine because all that matters is just simply "loving people" etc. It reminds me of the hippies in the 60s and 70s and that thinking is so errant and so worldly, while sounding religious. Paul taught that we should study the Word to be established in sound doctrine. And if Paul thought it was important to study the Word and to be grounded and established in sound doctrine, then I think it is vital to our growth and development to do the same to equip ourselves for the callings on each of our lives personally AND to equip us to help newborn Christians get established to contribute positively to their growth!

There is more to Christian living than just knowing how deeply we are loved, there is a job to do! There are those out there who want to lead us astray and it is our duty to be well studied in the Word and established in sound doctrine! Don’t let religious sounding phrases and statements catch you off guard and make you doubt whether you are living a successful Christian life. As we read earlier from Ephesians, we are to grow out of childhood so we are no longer tossed around by changing winds of doctrine. I see that a truly successful Christian is one who knows the truth and is grounded in the truth and can’t easily be swayed, but knows how to combat the wiles of the enemy and how to distinguish between truth and error disguised as truth, to become a fully mature man, perfect in Christ!

Growing In Him,
JRT