“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue alone but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:18) The apostle John reminds us that the standard of our love for each other as Christians has already been set by Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross. We show that we have God’s love inside us by loving each other as He loved us. And that love is not about warm feelings, but practical action.
So here are ten down-to-earth ways we could go about loving one another in the church. Remember that we have a responsibility not only to our long-standing friends but especially to new members and friends, to families with only one parent, to our older and housebound members, to the sick and to anyone in any kind of need.
• Go up to somebody you don’t know in the church, say hello, ask their name and fix a time to meet up and get to know each other properly.
• Invite a family or a single person to spend Sunday with you. Or a Saturday. Or the whole weekend!
• Set aside an hour each week to visit an older person or a single parent to help them with their chores and simply to chat.
• Offer to baby-sit for a member of the church so that they can go to a Home Group every week, or to a church meeting, or just have a fun evening out.
• When you want to sell something, say a car or a washing machine, instead sell it very cheaply or even give it away to somebody in the church who needs it. Even if you aren’t about to sell anything, but you know somebody who really does need something, think about buying one for them anyway. Or you could get together with a few friends to arrange a surprise present for somebody.
• Arrange a Sunday Buffet. Invite anybody who wants to come to join you for a simple Sunday lunch.
• Offer transport to a member of the church who has no car, not just so that they can come along with you where you are going but to take them wherever they would like to go but can’t.
• Set aside a weekend to do a major job around the house, say, some decorating or some gardening. Then find somebody else who needs that job doing for them, and go and do it for them instead.
• Hold an “At Home” evening and invite a few of your friends, a few folk you don’t know so well from church and a few neighbours. (Christmas is an ideal time – get planning!)
• Think ahead about folk who are going to be lonely at Christmas – families as well as older folk – and invite them to have Christmas dinner with you!
These are only ideas. I am sure that every one of us could show Christ’s love in at least one of these ways this week, and every week! So let’s really make an effort to put our faith into practice.