They’ll Know We Are Christians…

Posted On February 14, 2021

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:35 NIV

“We know and we believe that God loves us. God is love.
And anyone who loves others is in God and God is in him.”

1 John 4:16 WE

As Christians we are called to love others. In fact, Jesus said that love should define us as His followers. Why? Because love defines Him. He is love. And His Spirit lives in us. So without love, it’s impossible to be a true follower of Christ. Love is what He is, and so love is what lives in us when we choose to follow Him.

Despite our shortcomings, despite our failures, God still loves and forgives us. He patiently bears with us as we stumble and is always there to help us regain our footing. He never gives up on us. He loves us unconditionally. Once we understand this — when we really let it sink in — we will begin to see ourselves the way God sees us. And then we will begin to see others the same way. We will develop the same compassion for them that He has shown us. We will be patient with them. We will forgive them. We can’t help it. As the Holy Spirit works in us, we will learn to love all of God’s children the way God does.

“Water must be wet. A fire must be hot. You can’t take the wet out of water and still have water. You can’t take the heat out of fire and still have fire. In the same way, you can’t take the love out of [God] . . . and still have him exist. For he was . . . and is . . . Love.”

Max Lucado, Grace for the Moment

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

Colossians 3:12-14 ESV

John Ortberg explains that ever since the Garden of Eden we humans have been trying to take God’s place, and this pride in ourselves destroys our ability to love God and others the way that we should. He tells us:

“In place of pride, Jesus invites us to a life of humility: ‘All who humble themselves will be exalted.’ . . . Humility involves a Copernican revolution of the soul, the realization that the universe does not revolve around us. Humility always brings a kind of relief. . . . Humility is the freedom to stop trying to be what we’re not, or pretending to be what we’re not, and accepting our ‘appropriate smallness.'”

John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted

C. S. Lewis reminds us that God doesn’t call us to be humble because of His own dignity. He is not offended by our pride, but He knows it will get in the way of our relationship with Him. He calls us to humility because that’s what’s best for us:

“The point is, He wants you to know Him; wants to give you Himself. And He and you are two things of such a kind that if you really get into any kind of touch with Him you will, in fact, be humble — delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you restless and unhappy all your life. He is trying to make you humble in order to make this moment possible. . . . To get even near it, even for a moment, is like a drink of cold water to a man in a desert.”

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Mark 10:43-45 ESV

Once we let go of ourselves and our own selfish pursuits, we are free to live the life of love and humility that God calls us to. But how do we learn to be more loving and humble? As followers of Christ, we look to Him as our Teacher. When we do, we see that Jesus came as a servant. This is not what people were expecting. Did He go against His divine nature when He did this? No, actually He did this because of His divine nature, as John Ortberg explains:

“When Jesus came in the form of a servant, he was not disguising who God is. He was revealing who God is. . . . God is the Infinite Servant. God is the most humble being in all the universe. Jesus did not come as a servant in spite of the fact that he is God; he came precisely because of the fact that he is God.”

John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted

Jesus is love, which means humility and service follow naturally . . . for Him and for us as His followers. When we love and serve others, we show Christ to the world. Doing so doesn’t just benefit those we serve, it helps us too. When we humble ourselves before God and realize that we are limited in what we can accompish on our own, we learn to rely on His strength. And then a funny thing happens . . . we find that we can accomplish more than we ever thought possible.

“For those who exalt themselves will be humbled,
and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Matthew 23:12 NIV

“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.”

Galatians 5:13 NLT

In his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People, John Ortberg gives us some practical advice on how we can learn to serve one another:

• “The Ministry of the Mundane”
  From helping a colleague with a project at work to jump starting someone’s car to tending to your crying child in the middle of the night, we can help others throughout the day as we see a need. Ortberg explains: “When Jesus said the last shall be first, and the least shall be great, and the slave the greatest of all, he wasn’t giving orders. He was simply describing the truth about God’s kind of community and how different it looks from the way things generally work in our world.”
• “The Ministry of Being Interrupted”
  Sometimes we need to be available for others even if doing so is not on our agenda. This could mean taking the time to talk or pray with someone who is hurting, putting aside whatever we’re doing to play a game with our children, or just following the rules that everyone is expected to follow, even when it’s inconvenient.
• “Embracing Our Weaknesses and Limitations”
  We have power over our own schedules, and we need to recognize our limitations. If we are feeling worn out and stretched too thin, it’s okay to take time to rest. We can’t be effective servants if we don’t take care of ourselves. We may need to say no to some things, recognizing that God can run the world just fine without us — we don’t have to do everything.
• “The Ministry of ‘Holding Your Tongue'”
  Ortberg quotes Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be expressed in words. . . . It must be a decisive rule of every Christian fellowship that each individual is prohibited from saying much that occurs to him.” While expressing our feelings rather than bottling them up can be healthy, we need to be careful about what we say. As Ortberg reminds us, there are times when keeping our mouth shut is actually a “victory for the kingdom.”
• “The Ministry of ‘Bearing'”
  We may be called to help someone bear a burden or we may be called to simply bear with someone we find difficult to love. As Ortberg explains, “The ministry of bearing with one another is more than simply tolerating difficult people. It is also learning to hear God speak through them. It is learning to be ‘for’ them. It is learning that the difficult person I have most to deal with is me.”
  

“It turns out that the life we have always wanted — when our wants are purified and true — is a life of humility. We see this most clearly in Jesus himself. Jesus was no Superman. He did not defy his enemies with hands on his hips and bullets bouncing harmlessly off his chest. The whip of the Roman soldiers drew real blood, the thorns pressed real flesh, the nails caused mind-numbing pain, the cross led to actual death. And through it all, he bore with them, forgave them, and loved them to the end.”

John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted

The title of this week’s post comes from the song “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love” by Peter Scholtes. I have included the lyrics below. This song, which is based on John 13:35, reminds us to live up to our calling to love and serve one another. There are people in the world who don’t know Christ. We can show Him to them . . . by our love.

“They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love”

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord;
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord;
And we pray that all unity will one day be restored.
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand;
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand;
And together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land.
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

We will work with each other, we will work side by side;
We will work with each other, we will work side by side;
And we’ll guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride.
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

All praise to the Father, from whom all things come;
And all praise to Christ Jesus, His only Son.
And all praise to the Spirit who makes us one.
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

Peter Scholtes

This week’s Scripture passages focus on unity, praise, humility, service, and love. There is a printer-friendly pdf version below the image. I have also included a video of for KING & COUNTRY’s version of “They’ll Know We Are Christians . . .” simply titled “By Our Love.” The video includes scenes from the mini-series A. D. The Bible Continues. May it remind us that, like the early Christians, we are called to walk with each other and show the world the love of Christ.

“Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.  Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.”

Ephesians 4:1-3 NLT

References:

• “By Our Love by for KING & COUNTRY (Lyrics).” YouTube, uploaded by Emily M, 25 March 2015, https://youtu.be/d9zoq3k-3K0.
• Lewis, C. S. “Mere Christianity.” The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics, Harper San Francisco, 2002, pp. 1-177.
• Lucado, Max. Grace for the Moment: Inspirational Thoughts for Each Day of the Year. J. Countryman, 2000.
• Ortberg, John. The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People. Zondervan, 2002.

Images:

• LOVE featured image by Ylanite Koppens from Pixabay
• Wooden Hearts image by Marzena P. from Pixabay
• Clothesline Hearts image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay
• Heart Boards image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
• Heart Candy image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay
• Heart Flower image by kalhh from Pixabay
• Heart Tree image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay