I’ve spoken to dozens, perhaps hundreds of missionaries serving on foreign fields and many more Christians back home, and I’ve concluded that most of us have tilted away from the core of God’s motives behind the Great Commission. In a moment of profound tenderness we answered the call. But in the busyness of doing church, the heart of the gospel has faltered, its rhythm pathologic and in many cases expressing a fatal asystole. The heart of the gospel that once beat strong within is now stilled, registering a flat line, being ineffective and room-temperature dead.

Back home, the Christian church is facing its own onslaught of problems. The evils inherent to postmodernism, cultural irrelevance, the rising threat of Islam, and materialism need to be combated and overcome, but too many congregations are mired in pettiness, arguing over externals, worship styles, and schedules. The heartbeat of the gospel gasps beneath arguments over dress, programs, and budgets.

It’s not like we deny the heart of the gospel. We give it mental assent, but in action we deemphasize its importance.

What am I talking about? Agape.

Love?

Yes, love. But I’ve called it by its Greek name to avoid the confusion and emotional baggage that swirls around this word that our culture has robbed of its meaning.

It’s the most important component of effective evangelism. Remember what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13?

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” - 1 Corinthians 13:1–3

So there it is. The main thing. But that concept is so distorted by our contemporary culture that it’s been left a dreamy emotion, a nebulous and fluffy feeling that we can’t get our minds around and therefore ignore in our preparations for the work of the church. But without it we are nothing. All our strategies, partnerships, and efforts at contextualization, cell church, and programs are little more than an offbeat crashing of a cracked brass cymbal.

But I’ve never heard much more than a passing reference to love within the context of the mission of the church. “How to” books abound. Want peace? Want to stop obsessing? Want to forgive? Want to be free from your past? Our libraries and bookstores will be glad you’ve stopped in. Hundreds of titles will assist in your search.

But I need to love my neighbor. I need to love my brothers and sisters in Christ. And leave it to Jesus to make my life even more difficult when he said, “Love your enemies.”

Jesus didn’t make it optional. Over and over the injunction to love is issued in the strongest language.