The Problem of Love: Why the Church Must Return to the Doors of Agape

This whole pursuit comes from a conversation I have had with the Lord over the last 6 months, where He asked me, “What does an apostle of love look like?”

Shocking question among a shaking world. It is no doubt that we are living in a decisive hour. This is not just a time of shaking. It is a time of separation.

And not separation from the world.

It is a separation from false forms of love.

What I am sensing across the body of Christ is not merely a hunger for more power or better structure. There is a cry rising for love that is real. Not sentimental. Not humanistic. Not self-protecting. But divine love that proves God is among us. What I carry is not just a reformer’s edge for governance or gifting. It is a call back to the fellowship that only agape makes possible.

The truth is, the greatest battle the Church is facing is not over deliverance methods or fivefold structures. It is over the credibility of our love. Until we deal with that, we will continue to build what heaven cannot confirm.

The world is not confused by our gatherings. They are confused by our relationships.

They have seen our platforms. Now they are looking for our tables.

They do not ask, “Can you prophesy?” They are asking, “Can you be trusted to stay when someone breaks?”

Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). That verse is not a suggestion. It is a test. And right now, many are failing it.

The apostle John echoed this same cry across his letters:

“If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6, NASB).

You can say you are in fellowship. But if you are not walking in the light of love, you are walking in the shadows of self.

We have built systems that move people efficiently but rarely love them deeply. We are so used to functional love that we call it spiritual maturity. But the fruit of that love does not remain. It burns out. It divides. It performs. And it falls apart under pressure.

So how do we return?

How do we find our way back to love that matures?

Love that reveals Jesus?

Love that is not just emotional but eternal?

I believe God is calling us to walk through five doors of mature love, and to carry the one key that opens them all.

These five doors are not just biblical ideas. They are apostolic assignments. Each one requires us to be led by the Holy Spirit, to get low in posture, and to confront our culture of convenience. These doors are:

1. Proactive Passion
2. Truth in Love
3. Radical Forgiveness
4. Joyful Endurance
5. Life-Giving Identity

And the key that opens every one of them is mercy.

Mercy is not a soft virtue. It is the starting place of heaven’s strategy. Without it, we will preach love and still live in fear. Without it, we will build ministries and never become family.

In the weeks ahead, I will walk through each of these five doors. I will also show how mercy is the key that proves our fellowship is real.

This is not about theory. This is about transformation. Theory educates, transformation propels.

So if you are ready to stop talking about love and start walking in it, the door is open.

Let’s go all the way in.