When I worked as a detective, one of the things I liked least about the assignment was having to observe an autopsy. They are gruesome, but necessary to preserve the chain of evidence, determine a cause of death, and eventually solve a crime and arrest a suspect.

While so much is happening in our world that might cause concern, something else is taking place that is more important. In some cases, our love has been put to death. We need to determine the cause of a loveless expression of our faith. Without the presence of sacrificial love, we will have no mission or purpose in this life. We need to invite the Lord to examine the condition of our hearts and determine what caused the death of the love we once had beating within our chests.

In John 3:16, the Lord said “For God so loved the world…” Everything He did and every benefit we receive from Him follows in the wake of an expression of that love. There is no other way forward. We can’t elect that kind of love. It cannot be educated into existence. We can’t force it upon people. We can’t belong to a certain group to experience that love. It is a gift that must be treasured and preserved at all costs, or it will die.

God’s love was extended to everyone including those we might currently reject or be displeased with because of how they live or believe or worse because we have been told to hate them. This is a critical time to allow the Lord to perform a spiritual autopsy on each of us to determine what is causing the death of love in our hearts and within large segments of the Church. Hate is a murder weapon no matter what caliber is fired. This weapon is loaded over time when we became spiritually sloppy and failed to discern what was happening in our hearts which allowed dark spiritual forces to give us a reason to pull the trigger.

God does not drag our dead love against its will and place it on the table to begin a spiritual autopsy. It is our choice. Every spiritual autopsy will discover the same cause of death – a fatal shot to the heart. A spiritual autopsy is an emotionally gruesome procedure to observe and experience but one that is necessary from time to time to keep our love alive. Whenever we go under the knife of the Spirit and allow the Lord to have His way in our hearts, we will always experience a resurrection of love.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23).