Love is More Important than Anything Else

Yesterday I wrote about church politics and how to identify it. I said, church politics "show up in the way we treat each other" and looked at Colossians 3:8,9. I said, "We must have a zero tolerance for church politics and we must do what God tells us to do . . . stop it!" 

Today I want to spend a little more time in Colossians 3:10-17 and see what God's Word tells us to do . . . if we do these things, church politics will not be a problem in our children's ministries.

^"10 Each of you is now a new person. You are becoming more and more like your Creator, and you will understand him better.¹¹ It doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, or if you are circumcised or not. You may even be a barbarian or a Scythian, and you may be a slave or a free person. Yet Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. ¹² God loves you and has chosen you as his own special people. So be gentle, kind, humble, meek, and patient. ¹³ Put up with each other, and forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you. ¹⁴ Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together. ¹⁵ Each one of you is part of the body of Christ, and you were chosen to live together in peace. So let the peace that comes from Christ control your thoughts. And be grateful. ¹⁶ Let the message about Christ completely fill your lives, while you use all your wisdom to teach and instruct each other. With thankful hearts, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. ¹⁷ Whatever you say or do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks to God the Father because of him."

Look at what these verses tell us to do . . .

• Understand we are new people - we should not behave as we used to!
• Know we need to be people who are becoming more and more like Jesus so we understand Him better! He would NEVER use church politics to harm others, so we MUST NOT, too!
• Realize what we know; whose family we belong to, our position in the church - none of these things matters; Jesus is ALL that matters and He lives in us all! Church politics is about ego and there is no room for ego in the church!
• Rest in knowing God loves us and has chosen us! We do not have to position ourselves for "power" - God loves us, He has chosen us so He has something for us to do, something for others to do and we do not have to try to control who does what!
• Be gentle, kind, humble, meek, patient, graceful, forgiving and loving because love is more important than anything else! Love is what ties us together!
• See we are all part of the body of Christ and He has chosen us to live together in peace! If we really understood this, there would be no church politics causing damage in our churches and children's ministries. Let the peace of God control our thoughts!
• Be grateful! Be grateful for the truth God loves us and has something for us to do; this means we do not have to be jealous of what others do or try to control who does what. Each of us can be thankful for what God has for us to do!

Commit to these things. Model them to the volunteers in your church. Hold them up as the standard for all of your volunteers to follow. Remember, "Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together."