The Missing Doctrine

Over the past few years, I have read a large number of belief statements from different churches and denominations for a variety of reasons. But I’ve been struck by something that is missing in every single one of them.

Jesus taught that all the law and the prophets hang on 2 commandments:

Matthew 22:37-39

[37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [38] This is the first and great commandment. [39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

He also gave his followers a new commandment:

John 13:34-35

[34] A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. [35] By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

We are to love God with our whole being. The law said to love others as we love ourselves, under grace we are meant to love others as Christ loves us. We are explicitly instructed over 60 times in the New Testament to love God and others, including our enemies; and to make sure that our love is genuine (Romans 12:9, 2 Corinthians 6:6).

And yet the “Doctrine of Love” is missing in every church belief statement I’ve ever read. Jesus sums up the entire Old Testament as: love God, love others. The new commandment he gives us is: love others as I love you. Yet churches don’t think love is important enough to be mentioned as the core of their beliefs.

Have we all missed the most important part?

The most famous salvation verse in the Bible starts with the phrase: “For God so loved” (John 3:16). Love is the beginning of salvation, so why is it missing in the doctrine of salvation? We describe the doctrine of God whilst forgetting to say that God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). We detail the doctrine of Jesus Christ without describing that love was the reason he came (1 John 4:10). We give the doctrine of man as a fallen creation, without mentioning that God loves the sinner (Romans 5:8). We speak of spiritual gifts without ever mentioning that practising any spiritual gift without love is worthless (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). We affirm the doctrine of the family without any mention of its foundation in love for each other (Ephesians 5:25, Titus 2:4). We detail the doctrine of the church, forgetting that love for God and each other is its foundation too (John 13:35). We describe the end times without mentioning that when it’s all over love will still remain (1 Corinthians 13:8-13).

We forget love.

Consider Jesus’ words to the Ephesian church in Revelation:

Revelation 2:1-5

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; [2] I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: [3] And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. [4] Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. [5] Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

The church at Ephesus had a lot right: they did good works, they had patience, they separated from evil doers, they called out false apostles, they laboured for Christ’s sake, and they didn’t give up. Honestly if you didn’t know what was coming next you would be pretty impressed. They are doing so many things right; but they had abandoned their first love.

The Ephesian church had forgotten to love. They were standing for purity of doctrine and doing many good things, but they had forgotten love. Actually to say they ‘forgot’ may be too kind as it suggests it is something they accidentally did. Rather the Greek word used is more intentional: they left, or sent away or disregarded their love. Now, the Ephesian church was still doing, they were doing the same actions that many Christians define as ‘love’, when they teach that love is an action. But Jesus still criticises the Ephesians because love wasn’t the motive.

And I can’t help but see a connection between this description of the Ephesians and many churches today. They preach the gospel, they are labouring for the Lord with patience and endurance, they are separating from sin and false teaching, but they have forgotten to love.

Speaking to the Pharisees Jesus says, “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me.” (Mark 7:6-7) It is not just about what we do, it is about the motivation behind it. The Pharisee’s worship was meaningless because it wasn’t done out of love. Which is exactly what Paul also teaches us about our spiritual gifts: if we use them without love, they are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-2). Love must be the motivation or the actions are meaningless.

As someone who has spent time on the mission field, I know first hand that ministry can sometimes harden your heart. It is exhausting to deal with sinful people and their problems constantly. It is emotionally draining to be an empathic listener every day. It gets tiring to constantly have compassion for others. It is becomes easier to keep doing the work but with a lack of genuine love in your heart. And churches can do the same thing. They keep serving, witnessing, labouring but without real love.

Jesus gives the Ephesians a remedy: remember what you used to like, repent and do the first works. The word ‘repent' in Greek literally means to reconsider, think differently, or change your mind. So the Ephesians were to consider what they used to be like, reconsider their current state, then change direction and love God and others again.

I know this all too well. When I was on the mission field I needed to repent of my wrong attitudes. I had to repent of my lack of love for the people I was ministering to. And it changed everything. How could I teach God’s love for them, when I didn’t have love for them? But when I recognised that God loves them as much as he loves me, and he wanted me to have that kind of love for others, it became the motivation behind everything. Love became the motivation to give my life away.

So please, remember your love. Remember your love for God. Remember your love for others. Real genuine love. Love that lays down its life as Christ did for us. If you need to, repent of your current state and start to act from a place of love.

And then, shall all men know that we are truly Christ’s disciples.

But first we must have love.

All Glory to Him,