We love because God first loved us. — 1 John 4:19
Churches should have an identity/mission statement. It should be something that reminds members of who they are as a congregation and what they should be focusing on. Here’s one: “Love Christ deeply, worship Christ passionately, serve Christ boldly.”
But perhaps, for individual Christians, the simpler the better. Like the early church elder who wrote that we love because we’re already loved. That’s clear and to the point.
In a recent worship service, a personal mission statement came to me: As Jesus loves, so do I.
I like that because it pokes you into recalling how Jesus loved/loves. He was moved by compassion. He was generous. He sacrificed. He confronted injustice. He hung out with society’s outcasts. He was courageous.
What would you add?
Perhaps, as you go through life, you discover specific ways to do what he did. That way you are indeed being Jesus to another in some small way.
I’m going to print this simple mission statement out and post it on the fridge, above the miscellaneous other things that are magnetized there. It’s the most important thing I can do today, or any day.