How Shall we then Love?

As I read Paul's third letter to the Corinthians (we know it as 1 Corinthians), I learn more about how leaders are supposed to love people. Of course, we know that Paul wrote the famous chapter 13 in here, but how did Paul express love? If everything is to be done in love or else it is meaningless, how can we know we are expressing that love?

Some will say that we are supposed to accept all people no matter what. But then I read chapter 5 and Paul teaches the church in Corinth that they need to remove the sexually immoral man from their congregation (1 Corinthians 5:2). Granted, he was sleeping with his stepmom, but Paul goes on to teach that a little bit of sin ruins the entire congregation (1 Corinthians 5:6). So in Paul's mind, loving believers correctly sometimes means that we rebuke them in their sin.

There seems to be this subtle movement in the church that is crying that we do not call people out in their sin. But if Jesus loved us enough and hated our sin enough to endure the wrath of God to deliver us from our sin, why would we ever say to a believer caught in sin, "it's okay?" We don't understand love correctly.

Now, let me also say this: we cannot hold unbelievers to the same standard. Loving them means pointing them to Jesus in the midst of their sin. We have to expect unbelievers to act like unbelievers (1 Corinthians 5:9-10). Jesus hung around with the worst of sinners by the world's standards. He loved them and didn't spend His time with them pointing out all of their faults all the time. He talked with them, asked them hard questions, pointed them to Himself and the Father and loved them well. But even with unbelievers, He still was not okay with their actions (see the woman at the well and Zacchaeus).

To understand love, we should look no further than the cross. In that moment (and in every moment) God's was displaying perfect justice along with perfect love. We tend to put justice and discipline on the opposite end of love and grace; we think they are opposed to each other. But in God, they find perfect harmony. Because Jesus is our example, we should also learn to love as He did.

You've probably heard the illustration before of a child walking into a crowded street and the parent loving them enough to not only grab them out of the street but disciplining them to know what they did was wrong. Not one single person would tell that parent they aren't being loving because they are sucking the child's fun away. Then why is it that we cannot love our brothers and sisters in Christ enough to snatch them out of their sin? Why is it that I am thought of as legalistic and unloving when I warn unbelievers that their sin is leading them to destruction?

Church, we have to learn that love "does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth" (1 Corinthians 13:6). Let us not coddle those who are trapped in sin, but let us love them enough to point them to the Savior who paid a high price so they can be free from that sin that enslaves them.