Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Perhaps you have heard this verse before? Or perhaps you have sung the song, “They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love…”
It is interesting to me how many other ways we try and label ourselves Christians. How many things we think make us “Christians” or, Jesus’ disciples.
There are bumper stickers, those little fishies, t-shirts, jewelry, hand bags, wall hangings, pictures frames, signs, and all sorts of things to put up around you or to put on you that say to everyone, “I AM A CHRISTIAN!”
There are buildings with tall steeples and huge crosses and statues and large marquees with amusing (mostly) messages proclaiming to the world what we believe and who we are.
We have statements of faith and pages of doctrine to tell people who we are.
We have morals and practices and disciplines and prohibitions that define who we are.
We have our own music, our own TV channels, our own music festivals, our own coffee houses, and even our own skate nights to set us apart from the world and declare who is our Master.
Yup! There’s no mistaking it! With all of these very evident markings of a Christian, the world can not mistake where our allegiance lies, or the greatness of the one we follow!
Right?
Wrong.
Jesus said, by THIS everyone will know you are my disciples – that you follow me, that you reflect me – IF YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
There is no doctrine, no building, no set of rules, no list of disciplines, no amount of prohibitions that will demonstrate to the world who we are more than if we simply love each other. Really. Not fake demonstrations to catch the eyes of those around us… but true, simple, honest, heart-felt, generous, lavished-on love.
Why?
Because that is who our Leader is. Our Father is all of those things to all of us. So people will know we belong to him not by the rules we keep or the doctrine we teach or even the clothes we wear. They will recognize him in our unabashed, unconditional, unrelenting love for each other.
So why do we work so hard on the other stuff? Perhaps because it’s easier to keep a set of rules or to preach a doctrine than to actually give up time or money or other resources just to love another disciple. And love not only costs that… it costs our comfort. We are vulnerable when we love the way our Father does.
Most all of the things I mentioned above are not bad, and generally do come from a life of following Jesus. But they are SO secondary. If we do all of that, but don’t exhibit love openly and wildly… it might still be hard for people to see Who we follow, or if they do, their picture of Him will be distorted.
They will know you are Christians by your love.
Jesus did not make life hard for us. It is really simple. He summed up the whole Old Testament in these two lines: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.
When we learn that life is not about me, it sure gets a lot better.
And the world will too, as they see in us the visible demonstration of who our Leader – our Father – really is.