If you love someone, you will love (or at least appreciate) what they love. So if we love Jesus, we will love what Jesus loves. What does Jesus love? Scripture is quite clear on the answer: the Church. Jesus loves the church so much that His love for the Church is held up by Paul as the gold standard for love within marriage:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”

-Ephesians 5:25-30, ESV

Here, Paul describes both the magnitude of Christ’s love for the Church and the ways in which that love is evident. Jesus loves the Church so much that He gave of Himself to the Church in ways infinitely superior to any human benevolence. In His time on earth, Jesus poured His life into his disciples, especially Peter, James and John. He was content to spend and be spent for them, setting the example that they ultimately followed (2 Corinthians 12:15). He constantly sought their good in life then died to redeem them. The Church is therefore described as the Bride of Christ. In a betrothal of infinite cost, Jesus lived and died for the Church, “that he might sanctify her…so that he might present the church to himself with splendor…that she might be holy and without blemish.” Everything Jesus did was for the good of the Church and the ultimate glory of God. Paul also points out that Christ’s love for the Church is demonstrated by how He “nourishes and cherishes” the Church in the same way we naturally seek to nourish and cherish our own bodies. Elsewhere, Paul refers to the Church as the Body of Christ:

“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

-Romans 12:4-5

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”

-1 Corinthians 12:12-14, ESV

Paul then exhorts the Romans and Corinthians to nourish and cherish one another just a Christ nourishes and cherishes them:

“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

-Romans 12:6-8, ESV

“But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it….So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

-1 Corinthians 12:24b-27, 14:12, ESV

Therefore, if we are truly following Christ’s example, we will love the Church as He does, leading us to care for our fellow believers and work tirelessly to build them up, but that is not often what we see in our day in America.

Love is Not Absent

If Christ’s love for the Church compelled Him to leave His home in glory in order to serve us where we are, it naturally follows that our love for the Church should compel us to leave the comfort of our homes to both gather with our fellow believers and serve them where they are. I recently spend some time with a friend who was anxiously awaiting the return of his fiancée from a summer away, and I’m sure the feeling was mutual. If they were both fine being apart for long periods of time, it would raise red flags about their relationship. Similarly, we should long to be with God’s people regularly and in person. When COVID began, many churches temporarily closed or went virtual. In the initial days of COVID, when its full risks and impacts were unknown, this was a logical and prudent choice, but some other churches after weighing those risks found that the need to fellowship in person outweighed them. Those that did close and properly understood the importance of the gathering of the Saints re-opened as quickly as possible. Short absences from the Body are expected, such as personal sickness or extenuating circumstances, but prolonged absence when not legitimately prevented from gathering with the Saints is sinful. Just as Scripture warns against prolonged separation of married couples (1 Corinthians 7:5), it also warns against the church not meeting together:

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

-Hebrews 10:23-25, ESV

Scripture is clear that we NEED to meet together with the Saints in-person. While live streams are valuable to help us have some fellowship when physically absent, they are no replacement for physically gathering together. Jesus left home despite numerous risks in order to fellowship with His people, so we should be ready to do the same. Again, this does not imply that it is always sinful to be absent from the gathering of the church. Wisdom and love for neighbor sometimes dictate that we do not attend church for a time. But if this absence becomes the norm, it is sinful. For some, health or circumstances prevent them from regularly attending church, but they need fellowship also. In those cases, members of the church should come to them and minister to them. For all who are able, we need to be present in the church and the church needs our presence. If we love Christ, we will love fellowshipping in-person with His Saints and yearn for it in the rare instances where we must be absent.

Love is Committed

If we love the Church as Christ does, we will be committed to the Church as Christ is. Since the marriage metaphor for the relationship between Christ and the Church is the ideal to which all good marriages point, Scripture’s teaching on marriage is seen most perfectly in how Christ loves the Church. Paul goes on in Ephesians to explain that when God established marriage, He was really establishing it as a metaphor for Christ and the Church:

““Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

-Ephesians 5:31-32, ESV

When dealing with the question of divorce, Jesus made very clear that marriage was not only a commitment between one man and one woman, but that it was a lifetime commitment between them (Mark 10:9). This reflects Christ’s eternal commitment to the Church. We should be likewise committed to the local church for life, but we often stray from this.

Throughout Scripture, the faithfulness of God to His people is often contrasted with how they stray from Him, using the example of a faithful husband constantly betrayed by an adulterous wife. This is seen most vividly in Hosea. Sadly, our cultural affinity for “church hopping” often resemble how Gomer constantly left Hosea in search of other men to gratify her desires. Many people abandon the local church over the most minor disagreement or personal preferences. If God treated the Church the way many Americans do, we would be doomed to hell. God is faithful to the Church, so we should be too. Ideally, this means committing to the same local church for life. That is not possible in all circumstances, but should be our desire. I am a prime example of this, as my job requires me to move every few years. Still, when that season is over, I wholeheartedly desire to commit to and serve in a single local church for the rest of my life. In the meantime, I commit to and serve whatever local church God brings me to for as long as I am there. God moves His people as He wills, so it is not wrong to leave a local church out of necessity (as I have throughout my adult life). It is also possible that serious doctrinal differences or false teachings would make it appropriate to leave a local church, but this is not the norm. No local church is perfect, so they will all have flaws and do things that do not match our preferences. I have been blessed to be a part of some amazing churches in my life, but I have minor qualms and preferential differences with all of them. God gives us grace, so we should give our churches grace too. Jesus won’t give up on the Church, so we shouldn’t either.

Love Submits

Part of being committed to the local church is submitting to the authority of the leaders (particularly the elders) of that church. Before holding the love of Christ for the Church as the example of love to which husbands should strive, Paul exalts the Church’s submission to Christ as the example of submission to which wives should strive. In my paper A Biblical View of Leadership in the Workplace, I define submission as “choosing to live sacrificially by putting the needs of others and their ultimate good ahead of ourselves motivated by a healthy fear of God and following the example of Christ” based primarily on Philippians 2:3-4. In this way we are to submit generally to everyone (Ephesians 5:21), but that submission takes specific forms in various relationships (Ephesians 5:22-6:9). In the church, that means honoring and obeying the leaders of the church (including elders and deacons):

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

-Hebrews 13:17, ESV

This means that to be obedient to Christ and love His Church, we must joyfully submit to and honor the leaders that He has placed over our local churches. Often, this first takes the form of formal church membership, but it always means obeying the leaders of the church unless that obedience would disobey God. Ultimately, if we love the Church as Christ does, we will love both its members and its leaders.

Clearly this only scratches the surface of what it really means to love the Church as Christ does. Loving the Church as Christ does will compel us to prioritize fellowship with the church both in corporate gatherings and with one another, spend and be spent for the Church as a whole and our local church in particular, and honor and obey the leaders that God has placed over our local church. Love for the Church is what compelled me to start this blog, where I strive to prioritize publishing content that will build up the Church. Therefore, it is fitting that my first post should be about loving the Church as Christ does. If we love Christ, we will love His Church.