“I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’ As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight” (Ps. 16:2-3, NIV).
Over the course of my lifetime, I have run into quite a number of individuals who say they love Jesus but don’t like His church. This sounds plausible to the natural mind but… it is actually a mutually exclusive impossibility.
You see, you can’t truly love Jesus without loving His church right along with Him. Loving Him, and loving the ones He loves, are inseparable heart realities. To further understand this truth, let’s contemplate our Scripture for today.
If we were to isolate verse 2, those disgruntled individuals might have an illusory lleg to stand on: “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’” They might read that and exclaim, “See? The Lord is the only good thing that I have! Those church people – they definitely don’t qualify as a good thing!”
However inconvenient it may be, though, we can’t separate verse 2 from verse 3: “As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.” Who are these saints? They are you and me. They are every single man, woman, girl, and boy made holy by the blood of the Lamb. They are the Body of Christ, the bride for whom He gave His life.
According to this psalm, we are called not just to tolerate other believers; we are called to delight in them! Delighting goes beyond cordiality. It goes beyond casual acquaintance and guarded camaraderie. It even goes beyond teamwork and enthusiasm for a shared mission. Delight means wholehearted, exuberant enjoyment of those real-life people among whom God has planted you.
I’m going to be lovingly frank with you here. Delighting doesn’t happen by default. A human heart full of delight is the Holy Spirit’s magnum opus. Your heart becomes His masterpiece as He reveals to your spirit who Jesus is. To truly come to know the Savior is to fall in love with Him. The more you fall in love with Him, the more His love will seep into all the cracks of your heart. To love Him this way is to have His love overflow your heart, spilling out generously onto those around you.
This, only Holy Spirit can accomplish. And He can only accomplish it in a willing, hungry heart.
Ask Him today to do His beautiful work inside of you!
My precious Lord, apart from You I have no good thing. But with you, I have everything! I have all the delightful fullness of life! I ask that You would overflow me today with that fullness, so that it bubbles out on everyone that I meet. Oh, Fountain of joy, flood through my being today! Let the weary find Your infinite depths of living water moving through me, pouring into their thirsty souls! Let them come to understand how profoundly You delight in them when they encounter me!
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Have you experienced the Lord’s delight in someone not part of your family or intimate friend circle?
Feeding On Jesus 
Oh, I love that phrase, “Delighting doesn’t happen by default”! You are so right. Love is rarely convenient and not designed to be easy, and yet it is a delight when we let Jesus teach us how.
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Beautifully put, Pastor Pete! Thank you so much for this enriching and insightful comment 🙂
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Unfortunately there are churches that are toxic because of the hate they spread against anyone who doesn’t fit their picture of what a Christian should be like. Anti-Black, Anti-Muslim, Pro-guns, Anti-Democrats… I cannot love this type of Christian, and I will not attend this kind of church.
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Not attending is definitely the right approach. Showing them a better way by our example of love, too. May the Father empower us to overcome evil with good ❤️
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Beyond loving those who espouse the Name, we are to go farther, even loving our enemies. We must work out godly relationships in the light of this blog, and we are called to love even the “Hymenaeus-es and Alexanders” whom Paul handed over to Satan; this was the most loving way to deal with these toxic men, and it is important to keep the fact that the LORD loves even those who crucified Him in mind. We may have to follow in His steps soon, even to crosses. Love them all, even those who falsely call on the Name.
❤️&🙏, c.a.
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Well put, C.A. I also think about how in 1 Corinthians 5, even the act of handing that brother over to Satan was for the desired end of the salvation of his soul, for his ultimate good. So I very much agree that ultimately, doing so was an act of love. The Father disciplines those that He loves.
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Jennifer, this was a humbling reminder for me. I have been feeling some frustration with fellow believers at church and have been struggling to overcome them. Your words today pointed me in the right direction. Thank you dear sister.
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Aw, I have a big, tender, loving smile on my face, feeling the Father’s pleasure in what you shared here. He is so proud of you giving Him space to work in you! Loving is definitely costly many times.
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