1Peter 1:22 – Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth so that there is a sincere love for other believers, love one another fervently from a pure heart.
What is this time of testing under social isolation revealing about your relationship with your church brothers and sisters? What has the preclusion of meeting together for a full month now brought to light of your heart toward your church family? Even as fasting from food affords a good time for the Lord to talk to us about our relationship with food, so this forced fast from in-person fellowship is a great opportunity for Him to speak with us about our church relationships.
Are you grieving your church family’s absence? Do you find your heart yearning for your spiritual brothers and sisters? Does your spirit resonate with the Apostle Paul’s words to the Christians in Rome, “For I long to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you — that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, I by yours and you by mine” (Romans 1:11-12)? Or have you found it somewhat easy to “give up meeting together” (Hebrews 10:25)? If so, what root is producing that symptom of emotional detachment from those whom you are to “love fervently from a pure heart”? Have you yielded to the current of living for yourself (2Corinthians 5:15)? Have you perhaps allowed unresolved disappointments or offenses to become a wall between you and a brother or sister? What would the Lord have you do about this (Matthew 5:23-24; 18:15)?
Jesus desires that His fervent, pure love for us should overflow from us to one another (John 13:34). The more we enter into this, the more we experience the delights of His love, the more the body of Christ is built up in His love, and the more the world sees the truth of His love (Colossians 2:2; Ephesians 4:16; John 17:23).
Although physically separated from your church family, to whom would Jesus have you reach out today, “to…share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you–that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith”?