If you do not have love, you realise that you become miserable. Finding a solution to a situation works well when love is applied in the process. Unfortunately, many Christians do not apply love in their daily life situations. Why do humans find it difficult to love? The answer is not far-fetched. God is love and since nobody is God, it is easy to understand why man finds it difficult to love. Yet the highest level of spirituality is not the gift of spiritual manifestation but love.
The Church is supposed to be a love factory where love is manufactured and given to the members. David knew how to love. Can you phantom the level of love David showed when he saw Saul, his persecutor, sleeping in a cave but cut only a piece of his cloak as evidence to show him later? His men asked him to kill his enemy but David said no; I cannot touch the Lord’s anointed.
In 1 Samuel 22:1- 2, David escaped from Saul and went into the cave of Abdullam. His brothers and his father’s household heard about it and went to join him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him and he became captain to about four hundred men. If no love existed among them in the cave, the distressed and discontented men will kill each other. David became a captain to them and demonstrated love to them so they learned from him to live in love with each other. In a church, people are looking for fathers, mothers, brothers and even sisters that they do not have in their normal life. They are looking for some warmth from the people in Church and not in first instance for the message to be preached. How they are received and treated makes the Church a love cave. Their interest in the word of God comes later. In the cave of Abdullam, the people had six types of experiences as described below:
A touch. Hugging or a hand-shake is an appropriate touch. These give them a sense of belonging. Somebody lost a child and has not recovered yet from it. Another went through divorce and has not overcome it. A Church has such people; distressed, discontented and in debt. Some of the words we speak in Church may be affecting these people. When you tell the congregation the Church is not a cemetery, you may not know somebody lost a child and is not over it yet so for such a person, he is in the cemetery. When we know how to show love in the Church, the Church begins to grow. When the people receive the appropriate touch, it gives them warmth to remain in the Church. A second experience is that the people learn to trust again because of the love in the Church. When the people in the cave heard David say the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. The other people would say even with all that he went through he can still trust God and the people also begin to trust God. How good is it that brethren dwell in unity? Your life must make someone trust in God. The people in the cave were taught. People are taught when they come to a Church where there is love. David said the Lord’s words are sweeter than honey and worth more than silver and gold. David taught the men with his experiences. The Church leaders must teach others through their life experiences with the mistakes they made and how they corrected them. David said restore to me the joy of thy salvation and sustain me with thy free spirit; then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners will return to you (Psalm 51:12-13). The fourth experience is that we are tested and you learn how to overcome temptation. You learn how to turn over the other chick when someone offends you. A fifth experience is that you go through training while you learn the scriptures and get training in the word of God. Finally, in a cave of love you will enter the city of Triumph. David brought up (trained) all the men that were in the cave with him and they moved into the city of Hebron (2 Samuel 2:3-4) If there is love, the Church will triumph.
