The Bible in many places speaks of how we must treat the other members in the church. One of the most frequently used phrases is “love one another.” The Bible also speaks of “brotherly love.” In John 15:12, Jesus says, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.”

Yet, a visitor to one of our churches can often see separate little groups of people, cliques. A clique is defined as a small set of persons who cling closely together. Often in a clique, a person from another group is not accepted, and there is an attitude of “I’m better than you are.” I Corinthians 4:7 states: “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” In other words, all our talents, money, personalities, all that we have and are comes from God. Therefore, even if we have more talents, more gifts, than another person, we should not think we are better or puff ourselves up with pride because it is all a gift. Because it is a gift, and because the Bible commands that we love one another and let brotherly love continue, cliques are wrong. It isn’t that we can’t be choosy in picking our closest friends, but we shouldn’t act like someone who isn’t one of our friends isn’t welcome.

Also, when someone comes to visit one of our churches, we should talk to them and make them feel welcome. Often, I hear students talking about different churches they visited and that they were impressed with the friendliness of one church or another. This should be the response after someone visits one of our Protestant Reformed churches. In John 13:35, Jesus says, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” We, as the youth of the church, should help to make this true of our churches. After someone visits a Protestant Reformed church, they should leave being impressed with the friendly, caring attitude of the church.