If Jesus can command in Matthew the following:

37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38. This is the first and great commandment.
39. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

It sounds like he requires a lot. Then there must be a way to do them all.

All thy heart, soul, and mind is a lot of love.

He showed us how to love when walking on this earth.

Just last Sunday at church, the preacher said that most of the work that we do for the Lord should likely be done OUTSIDE of the church.

The activities at church are made available for us, and for us to invite our friends and unsaved friends. They are to glorify the Lord and edify the church, Christ’s bride. Not to be taken too lightly.

God also tells husbands to love their wives like Christ loves the church.
Wow, that is also a lot of love. So I take it to mean that we are to take our family lives very serious.

The words “one accord” also strikes me here.

We read in Acts they were of one accord.

I don’t think church will hurt family life if we are all on the same path, or in one accord if you will.

In the book of Revelations some verses speak to a church who had ‘forsaken their first love’

Perhaps this is the kind of church your friend speaks about. They go through the commendable duties but there is no love.

In any case it seems like a wake up call to examine yourself, make sure you are right with God, then take care of any matters inside His body, the church, if there needs correction.

I think it’s about finding a balance and that’s a struggle many of us will face for much of our lives. At one stage last year I was finding that I was doing ‘church stuff’ three weeknights per week and struggling to find time to spend with non Christians. It’s not a very good witness to say we care about non Christians but never have any time for them cos we’re so wrapped up in church activities.

However, I wouldn’t NOT want to be involved in church…it’s more about thinking which activities will be most worthwhile. For example, I want to be involved in reaching people with the gospel whether that be as part of a church group or just catching up with someone 1-1 or getting involved in community events. Fellowship with other Christians is important too but not to the neglect of my marriage.