On a recent Sunday in St. Paul, Minnesota, protestors disrupted a church service. Headlines framed it as a First Amendment issue, but what happened was far more serious. Worship is not a performance for people — it is communion with the living God, and to interrupt it is to intrude on holy ground.
Who Is the Audience — and Whose Service Was Interrupted?
I don’t usually write about current events, but something happened recently that stirred a deeper question in me. When protestors entered a church in St. Paul and disrupted the service, the headlines focused on the First Amendment, the FACE Act, and the legality of interrupting a religious gathering.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized: this isn’t primarily a legal issue. It’s a theological one. And it’s far more serious than most people realize.
This message is for believers and non‑believers alike.
Most people assume the audience in a church is the congregation. After all, they’re the ones sitting in the pews, listening to the sermon, singing the hymns.
But that’s not actually true.
As Christians we not only believe that when the church gathers, Christ is present among His people — we know it, we experience it. Not symbolically. Not metaphorically. Truly.
As the psalmist says: “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” (Psalm 22:3)
That is God telling us, where He is worshiped, He is present and paying close attention.
When we sing, pray, and hear the Word, we are not performing for one another. We are offering worship to the living God, who is present among us.
So whose service was interrupted in St. Paul? Not the pastor’s. Not the choir’s. Not the congregation’s.
It was God’s.
To interrupt a worship service is not the same as interrupting a lecture, a concert, or a political rally. It is to step into a moment where heaven and earth meet — a moment set apart for communion with the living God.
Even if someone does not believe in God, they can understand the concept of sacred space. Every culture has it. Every people group has it. Every human heart recognizes it.
To violate sacred space is to violate something deeper than law. It is to violate meaning.
Picture what happened
Imagine a wedding ceremony. The bride and groom stand before each other, vows are being spoken, and suddenly a group interrupts — turning their backs on the couple, shouting at the guests. The violation would be shocking.
That’s what happened in St. Paul. Except it wasn’t a bride and groom being dishonored. It was the God of all creation, receiving the worship of His people.
Why this is more serious than the First Amendment
The First Amendment protects the right to worship. The FACE Act protects access to religious services.
But neither of those laws can capture the gravity of what happens in a church on Sunday morning.
Because the real weight is not legal. It is not merely spiritual. It is supernatural.
A worship service is not a public forum. It is not a stage for debate. It is not a neutral space where competing messages can be inserted
It is a moment where the people of God gather to hear from Him, respond to Him, and offer themselves to Him.
To interrupt that is not simply rude. It is not simply provocative. It is not simply political. It is a disruption of communion between God and His people.
A message for believers
If you are a Christian, this moment should remind you of the holiness of what you participate in every Sunday. Worship is not casual. It is not routine. It is not filler between the rest of your week.
It is sacred. It is weighty. It is an encounter with the living God.
Treat it as such.
A message for non‑believers
You may not share the Christian faith. You may not believe in God at all. But you can still understand the seriousness of entering a space that others hold sacred.
You don’t have to agree with the beliefs to respect the meaning.
And if you want to understand Christians — truly understand them — start here: Worship is the center of their lives. It is where they meet the One they believe created them, redeemed them, and sustains them.
Interrupting that is not a political act. It is a spiritual one. And yes — it is supernatural.
And here is the warning: when you step into that space and disrupt it, you are not only confronting people. You are stepping into a moment directed toward God Himself. You may not believe in Him, but if He is real — and Christians know He is — then you are trampling on holy ground. That is not something to take lightly.
Protestors may have a serious passion for their cause, but passion without perspective is dangerous. They did not stop to consider the serious passion of those who were worshiping. And if they doubt the gravity of such an act, they need only imagine trying the same disruption in a mosque — especially in the Middle East — where the consequences would be immediate and severe.
The Gravity of Sunday
There is serious gravity to what happens in a church on Sunday morning. Not because of the law. Not because of tradition. Not because of social norms.
But because Christians believe — and know — that God Himself meets with His people there.
Scripture says: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28‑29)
And whether one believes that or not, it deserves to be treated with reverence.
“To intrude upon worship is not to make a political point — it is to intrude on the presence of God.”
How many of us have heard the statement “Jesus saves!” Or has anyone ever asked you, “Are you saved?” I don’t remember how old I was when someone asked me that question. I think I was in high school. I really didn’t know what to say. At that time I understood that a certain group of people liked to go around and make sure everyone was “saved”. I kind of felt an annoyance toward these people and considered them religious nut-jobs who ought to mind their own business. Well lets face it, some of these people could be quite pushy. On top of that I had no idea what they really meant by “saved”; “saved from what?”
Now I wasn’t completely ignorant of what they meant; or so I thought. I had heard that Jesus was a good man who died on a cross to save us from our sins. I didn’t really know how this helped us, but I knew that because He died, we didn’t have to worry about hell or something like that. Decades later I would come to understand more fully what this “saving” was actually about.
For starters, I learned who Jesus is. I assumed, like many, that Jesus was just like other prominent religious figures in history, like Gautama Buddha, the Prophet Muhammad, or Confucius. This was wrong. Jesus is, has always been, and always will be God.
Jesus says, ” I and my Father are one.” – John 10:30
“Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I am!”” – John 8:58
“No one can see God, but Jesus Christ is exactly like him. He ranks higher than everything that has been made. Through his power all things were made—things in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, all powers, authorities, lords, and rulers. All things were made through Christ and for Christ. He was there before anything was made, and all things continue because of him.” – Col 1:15-17
Jesus made Buddha. He made Muhammad. He made Confucius. He even made the molecules of the very nails which held Him to that cross. He is not just a good man who died hanging from some timber.
The second thing I learned was why Jesus had to die. This was really a mystery to me until I understood that Jesus is God. He came to earth, giving up His glory, the majesty of His position as God, to be human. He could not give up his deity yet He was human for a time. Jesus lived a perfect life, without sinning, and then willingly and fully aware of what He must endure, went to the cross to suffer and die for us.
“For our high priest [Jesus] is able to understand our weaknesses. He was tempted in every way that we are, but he did not sin.” – Heb 4:15
“Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could become right with God.” – 2 Cor 5:21
He had to do it because we could not. If any other man went to the cross that man would not be paying for our sins, but his own. And once that man was dead, he could never raise himself to give us the hope of eternal life. It had to be Jesus.
The Third thing I learned is how Jesus could pay for our sins. I’ve heard this question in the past; “How could one man pay for all of our sins?” If the price of sin is an eternity in hell, how could one man suffering for a few hours pay for an eternity of hell for even one person much less millions of people? The answer is because the worth of that Man is so much more than everyone and everything else put together.
“For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.” – Heb 3:3
“Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” – Rev 5:12
If you took all the people who ever lived and ever will live, all the sand from the shores, all the trees from every forest, all the water from the oceans, all the planets, all the stars, and every piece of cosmic dust in the universe and placed it on one side of a scale and then set Jesus on the other side, His worth would fling it ALL out of existence. That’s how He could suffer for our sins.
The final thing I learned is from what He saved us. Jesus suffered a lot at the hands of the Romans on the day of His crucifixion. He was beaten, He was mocked, He had His beard and hair pulled out, He was was scourged almost to the point of death, and He was nailed to a cross and left to die an excruciating death. In fact the word excruciating comes from the word crucifixion. But all this was nothing compared to the suffering He endured in the three hours of darkness that fell over the earth.
“And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.” – Mark 15:33
I’ve heard people say this is the time in which the Father turned away from the Son. But this is not so. This was when the Father in full measure poured out His Almighty wrath upon the Son for every sinner that ever was and every sinner that ever would be. He unleashed hell and fury as nothing that ever was or ever will be again. Even Satan and his daemons will never know the enormity of the righteous judgement exacted on Jesus that day. This is that from which we are saved. We are saved from God.
“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” – Rom 5:9
Because we have been saved from God, we can now enter into a loving relationship with God. It was His love and grace that paved the way. He knew it from the beginning. This was not plan “B”; this was the plan all along. Before Adam, before even time, He knew He would need a way to redeem us. That way is Jesus Christ, the worthy Lamb Who was slain.
I want to credit Ravi Zacharias and Paul Washer for two of my illustrations.
So we are at the point now where we are asking ‘What difference does it make if love preceded life?’ ‘Why are you spending any time on this topic at all, Tim?’ Please bear with me and I will try to reveal something quite meaningful and definitely life changing. The fact that God was content in a holy loving relationship before He created the universe means something quite terrifying and at the same time quite wonderful. It means that He does not need a single one of us. ‘Whoa. Wait… You lost me, Tim. You’re saying God doesn’t need me. How is this helpful? And, I see how this statement is a little scary, but how is this “wonderful”?’ Yes. Think about that for a minute. ‘God doesn’t need me… He doesn’t need me.’ So a logical conclusion to this thought is ‘If God doesn’t need me, He must not care about me.’ But that is actually the wonderful part. In fact He does care about you. He doesn’t have to care one little bit, but He does! You see, this is where I’m going with this thought about love preceding life. It fully demonstrates God’s love for us. God was in a perfect, complete, loving relationship long before you and I and everyone else, but He, in love (not because He needed love), chose to make us. And He made us so that we might experience HIS love, not the other way around. This is perfect unconditional love. He made us knowing that we would not all love Him and that many of us would hate Him, but He loves us none the less. How do I know this?
“While we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son”~Romans 8:10
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. ~John 3:16
Think about this. God could have saved Himself a lot of pain and suffering by not creating mankind. But knowing full well how we would turn from Him, He made us anyway. And for our benefit, He lowered Himself to be born of a virgin woman and live among us facing every evil and temptation this world has to offer and not once falling short of God’s perfect standards. And then He willingly went to the cross and suffered death and worse the wrath of the Father; which is our due for turning away from Him. And on the third day of His death, He rose Himself from the grave to show us that in Him there is no death but eternal life. He, God, the Son, Jesus did this for you. This is true love from eternity past. If you believe that, your eternal life is secure.
To answer the question ‘Who did God love before the beginning, before the creation?’ the Monotheist might say ‘God loved himself before he created life.’ But that doesn’t really work if you think about it. Can you really truly love yourself? The Bible tells us what love is.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
So no, you really cannot love yourself. Or wait… Can you? Someone with a mild knowledge of the Bible (including myself) might say, ‘Whoa whoa whoa! What about when Jesus says;
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” ~ Mark 12:31
‘Love “YOURSELF”! See! It says it right there! What about that? Huh?’ Okay, okay. I had the same question. So lets look at this verse in context. ** TANGENT ALERT! TANGENT ALERT! ** (I do this a lot. Sorry.) Jesus is asked a question; “Of all the commandments, which is the greatest?” To which Jesus answers;
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” ~ Mark 12:29-31
It is important to note that Jesus is telling His listeners to 1) Love God above everything and 2) Love others. There is no command or suggestion or hint anywhere in the Bible that teaches anyone to love themselves. The only thing He is saying here in verse 31 is that instead of putting yourself first, you must put others before you. And so I still hold firm to the belief that you cannot truly love yourself.
Still not convinced? Ask yourself this question. ‘Would I die for myself?’ Is there a greater act of love than to give your life for someone else? Jesus says;
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” ~ John 15:13
I doubt anyone would disagree with that. Without belaboring the point any further I think it is safe to say that the Monotheistic god could not love himself before creation. In fact I believe a more realistic answer from this worldview would be that ‘God created, that he might love what he created.’
So we come to the Trinitarian worldview which is the Christian worldview. One God in three distinct Persons. I can go into the mind numbing conversation of a Triune God some other time, but let me assure you, dear reader, the God of the Bible is unquestioningly a Triune God. As I mentioned in my last post this means He is one God in three Persons. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each equal and each distinct and all God. In this case and only in this case it is possible that God was loving before there was a creation. The Father, Son, and Spirit loving Each Other in a Holy, eternal Community before there ever was a creation. Do you see this? Only in the Christian worldview can love precede life.
So that begs the question; ‘Who cares? What difference does that make? So what?’ Well, I’m glad you asked. I will save the answer to that question for my next post.
Take any major worldview (that is, any major religious or philosophical stand through which one views the world) outside the Christian worldview, and you will find that in every case, life precedes love. This is no slight or defamation toward any worldview, it is simply the truth. Ask anyone true to their faith, be they Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, etc. and he or she would have to agree. Only the Christian worldview can claim that Love precedes life. This begs two questions; How is this possible and more importantly; Why does it matter?
I borrowed my title from an ancient philosophical question; “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” The question is meant to stimulate the mind as one ponders origins or ‘first cause’. The answer to that question can easily be found in the Bible; Genesis chapter 1. The answer to my question is also rooted in the beginning but may not be so obvious. It goes back in history a little bit further. It goes back to Genesis chapter 1 verse 1; “In the beginning God…” The word for God here was originally written ‘Elohim‘. This is the Hebrew word for God in it’s plural form. You see Christians worship the Triune God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One God. Three persons. Each equal and each distinct and all God. This is how it is possible that Love preceded life.
If God was there at the beginning one could ask this question, ‘Who did God love before the beginning, before the creation?’ Look at the answer to that question from these viewpoints. The Atheist would say ‘There is no sentient cause or god who created life, so of course life preceded love.’ In fact they might even say ‘Love is simply a bio-chemical reaction to certain environmental stimuli, so again, naturally life must precede love.’ The Pantheist would say ‘Nature or the universe is god, therefore life had to precede love because before there was anything, there was nothing that could love.’ The Monotheist might have a better answer which I will explore in my next post.
