When we believe in Jesus and undergo the experience of spiritual rebirth, God calls us to be his children and He becomes our Father. The children of God becomes part of a family where we call each other brothers and sisters, and family love is a natural part of this relationship. Everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. In the same light, the Great Commandment calls us to love God and love our neighbours as ourselves. This is the commandment that Christ himself has established for us. When we love God, we will love those whom God loves. We WILL love the family of God.

This love that is demonstrated by Christ is an inconvenient love where Christ the son of God came to earth as a baby, born of flesh, lived a humbled life and faced the temptations of men. The love of Christ is a sacrificial love where He gave his life for his own brother on the cross. John 15:13 says greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Jesus perfectly modelled for us in this instant: Whoever loves God loves the children of God.

Dear brothers and sisters, in Christ we are a family and it is not just a slogan we give to ourselves to make us feel together. When we call each other brothers and sisters in Christ, there is indeed a new bond of love which holds us together. This means that we bear each other’s burden and we serve one another. Someone used to tell me that Christians are one of the most “kaypoh” (busybody) group of people. Not in the sense where we are constantly finding out about what is happening in each other’s life so we can be talking behind their backs. It is where we are constantly on the lookout to see if the people in the community are in need.

The early church gave us a beautiful picture of how the church was like in Acts 2. They devoted themselves to the word of God. They met in the family to break bread together and also shared all that they had with one another. They sold their possessions and belongings and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had needs. This image is a strange image to us modern and private men, and we might not be able to live in the same manner like the early church. However, the principle of what it means to be church remains: We are constantly on the lookout to love another as Christ loves us. Whoever loves God loves the children of God.

It should then be strange words to your ears when a self-professed Christian tells you that his or her faith is a personal one between God and the individual. It is strange words to my ear when believers says that there is no need for a church community nor fellowship, or that when brothers and sisters are truly in need, we turn them away for whatever reasons. At least that’s not what I understand to be the biblical understanding of how the church life ought to be.

Dear brothers and sisters, God has given us grace to be able to be His children. He has also given us the responsibilities to love and watch over our spiritual family. Look around you, and see who might be in need. Sometimes it requires us to go beyond our comfort zone, other times it might be a simple text message of letting the person know you are there. God always gives us enough resources to be a blessing unto others. I pray that we will love God by loving our family. Whoever loves God loves the children of God.