We Are What We Love 

Trevor introduces our new sermon series for the Autumn

When I was at university, one of the highlights of the year for the Christian Union was mission week. For a few months, intense planning and prayer was invested in a week of outreach activities on campus, with prominent speakers explaining the gospel to lunchtime and evening audiences.

Among my many memories of these events, one of the most vivid is from the time we conducted a ‘worldview survey’ of fellow students. We invited them to fill out a questionnaire which then generated a personalised report on their perspective on the world, explaining what it meant if they were, among other things, atheist, deist, nihilist, monist or postmodernist.

On one level the tool worked well. It appealed to the curiosity piqued in all of us when we’re promised some kind of insight into ourselves, and it was undoubtedly best suited to a campus location, full of young people who are wondering about the meaning of life. But in the years since, I’ve found myself wondering more about the limitations of the exercise, which was based on the idea that people are primarily thinking beings. If only we could persuade them of the rational case for Christianity, then they would have no choice but to commit themselves to Jesus.

It’s a neat theory, but a flawed one, given that it rests on the idea that humans are primarily thinking beings. However, we’re more than just people who rationalise and decide. We’re also created to love and feel, to yearn and hope. Our heart matters just as much as our head. As the great leader of the early church, Augustine, once remarked: ‘My weight is my love. Wherever I am carried, my love is carrying me.’

This is a principle that can be applied to both evangelism and discipleship. The extent to which we grow and become mature in our faith is primarily about our hearts and our love: What excites us and gets us out of bed? What are the things that we care about enough to change our priorities? Is Jesus front and centre of our plans or merely someone we regard as a third party in our decision making? 

The writer of Proverbs offered this memorable advice to readers: ‘Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it’ (Proverbs 4:23). These famous words will be the guiding principle behind the new sermon series which begins on 1 September. For three months, we’ll reflect together on a variety of commands to love which are found in Scripture.

We’ll think about who and what we’re encouraged to give our affections to, considering not just the importance of love for God and neighbour but also what it means to love mercy and wisdom, as well as longing to be in fellowship with God and his people. We’ll also acknowledge the reality of rival loves which compete for our affections. As we make this journey together, my prayer is that God will deepen our love and desire for him, birthing in us a passion and joy that bears fruit in not just the life we share together but also our mission to our neighbours in Selsdon and beyond. Trevor