Community: Built by Cross-shaped Love | Mike Woods | March 22nd 2026

But okay, you might be thinking, well, I have tried to love people and I have been rejected or even I have been abused in seeking to love. So Paul says in verse seven that love keeps going. It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes, and it always perseveres. Jesus was rejected and Jesus was abused and indeed, Jesus died for our benefit and he calls us to take up our cross and to follow him. Yes, there will be rejection and yes, there will be abuse But that should not stop us loving. [00:35:13] (78 seconds)  #LovePerseveres

Well, if we're to love God and we're to love everyone else, doesn't that include people in the church? But Jesus says, it's new. We're to love in the church. We're to love everyone outside the church but we're to love people in the church somehow even more. Not that we love others less, but somehow our love for one another needs to be next level. And in fact, that is the witness of the church. The church grows when people see the love that is within the church. [00:10:10] (57 seconds)  #ChurchLoveWitness

He says, oh, you you who think you know what is right. You who think you know it's fine to eat this food. Yes. That's all good and actually you're right. You understand it correctly but knowledge is not something to be used to build yourself up. Love is the thing that builds up. And so, he concludes that section by saying, therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again so that I will not cause them to fall. [00:23:51] (45 seconds)  #LoveOverKnowledge

You know, I've only got so much and there are some people who will just keep taking and taking. If I'm to give up all these things, I'm to empty myself and to give for others, where does it stop? Well, in one sense there are no boundaries. As we just said, it carries on. But just because we are to love does not mean that we are to be the doormat. We are to love to build people up. Sometimes, building up requires something to be broken. Maybe a toxic relationship, maybe an abusive situation. [00:36:46] (63 seconds)  #LoveWithBoundaries

A new commandment I give you that you love one another. And actually isn't that interesting because elsewhere, when Jesus is asked, you know, what is the greatest commandment? He says that we should love God with all our heart, mind, and soul and so forth and so forth and our neighbor as ourselves. This is the summation of the law, the Torah. But to his disciples on the night he's betrayed, he says, a new commandment I give you that you love one another. [00:09:31] (40 seconds)  #NewCommandmentLove

We are called to leave behind the childish pursuit of status and success and the mind of childhood. The status and success that is measured by this world. We are called to grow up into the image of God. The image of our Lord Jesus who went to the cross for us. We are called to self empty, to empty ourselves, to seek the other, in self emptying other seeking love. [00:40:50] (57 seconds)  #SelfEmptyingLove

But Paul was to sum up what Paul was saying. To truly participate in the Lord's Supper, right, is to come together to recognize that we are all saved by Jesus's blood. It is not a place for status and power. It is a place for recognizing that we are nothing. To go ahead and use it as some, if you like, fashion parade was so bad that Paul says, this is why some of you are sick and indeed why some of you have died. There is judgment upon you. [00:28:49] (52 seconds)  #HumbleCommunion

You do not use these things that you have, that you're right, that it's perfectly acceptable. In fact, often culturally, it's expected that you use to your advantage. Instead, you deny those things in yourself and you use them for the advantage of others. This is the pattern of love that we are called to in the church, within the church, as well as to outside. [00:19:40] (45 seconds)  #ServeNotShow