Healthy Churches are Loving, Doing, and Discerning Churches
- Jack Selcher
- Sep 17
- 3 min read
Some Christians believe that Jesus emphasizes what to do and not do more than love. That is, He expects only regular church attendance, tithing, and refraining from drinking, smoking, and cursing.
About 250,000 people lived in Ephesus. Christianity came to them about AD 52 through Aquila and Priscilla.
John wrote Revelation about 40 years later to the second generation of Christians. The believers there had their good points.
They didn’t take their faith lightly. Their deeds, hard work, and perseverance pleased Jesus, who was in their midst and knew what was happening.
They worked for Him. When the going got tough, they did not quit. Furthermore, they did not tolerate false teaching.
They distinguished true apostles from deceivers. Like them, we need to be a doing and discerning church.
We must be a doing church. The Apostle Paul labored until he was weary so every person would be mature in Christ (Colossians 1:29).
To do that, we share the gospel and disciple those who receive it. God uses many different gifts in that effort. What next step can you take (time, energy, talents, treasures) for God to fully use the resources He has entrusted to you?
To be a discerning church, we must firmly grasp the truth. No easy button accomplishes that.
Time in God’s word equips us. It matters. Misleading false apostles abound in thousands of religious cults. Many spiritual leaders do not preach the need for a new birth, contrary to John 3:3.
Secular leaders (and some religious ones) insist human beings are good, contrary to Romans 3:23. Some explain the universe without God.
Some elevate tolerance (including tolerance of sin) as the highest virtue. Television misleads by portraying life as if God were not necessary. A doing and discerning church is good.
A loving church is best. The doing and discerning of the church in Ephesus were not enough.
Most churches are not as good as they were in those two praiseworthy areas. Yet, a notable failure caused the Lord to threaten to remove their light altogether.
Love for Him and others no longer motivated them (Revelation 2:4). The Apostle Paul had once commended them for their love for others (Ephesians 1:15). That love had grown cold without their realizing it.
So, do you love God and others with the same intensity as when you first believed? Your obedience to Him is the best measure of it.
Without love, doing and discerning are worthless. Jesus expects our first love and first works to continue.
Sadly, many churches operate as social clubs long after apathy has extinguished their light. To escape that fate, we must repent of playing church and start being a church where love flows. We do that by wholeheartedly returning to Jesus, the source of our life. What is your takeaway?
See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.
God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead 6,090 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 15,150 people. I invite you to explore and use it in your setting.
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