Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. (Eph 4:2). Unity around your life — in your small group, church, or family — requires you to be realistic in your expectations. Many people bring unrealistic expectations to the Church to always do everything right and minister perfectly to everyone. This is just fantasy. A Church can be healthy but will never be perfect. A group of imperfect people will never be able to create a perfect community.
Psalm 119:96 says, “I have seen that all [human] perfection has its limits [no matter how grand and perfect and noble]; Your commandment is exceedingly broad and extends without limits [into eternity].” (AMP). It is only God’s Word which is perfect. Everything on this planet is broken —the weather, economy, our bodies, relationships, or minds. Nothing here works perfectly except God’s Word. To expect perfection in your church is to set yourself up for massive disappointment. When people read books about the ideal church, they become cynical. Why? Because they are hoping for something that doesn’t exist. When you discover that God intends genuine fellowship, it will be easy to enjoy association with others. You can be discouraged by the gap between the ideal and reality, so it is important not to think of perfection in any human gathering.
Jesus passionately loves His Church even with all its faults and failures —and He wants you to do the same. If you are going to be Christ-like, you must love the Church despite its imperfections. Longing for the ideal while criticizing the real is evidence of spiritual immaturity. On the other hand, settling for the real without striving for perfection is complacency. Maturity is living with the tension of what you know the ideal could be and what reality is.
In parenting, you don’t wait for your kids to grow up before you start loving them; you love them at every stage of their maturity. In the same way, you need to discover how to love people at every stage of their growth, and you need to learn to love the Church at every stage of its growth. Other believers will disappoint you, but that’s no reason to stop loving and fellowshipping with them. You will live with them for eternity, so you should be practising how to love them more like Jesus. “Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.” (Eph 4: 2).
