Day Twenty Seven: A New Commandment

The life of a Christian ought to be marked overwhelmingly by an ethic of love. Jesus taught us in John 13:35 that the watching world would discover the evidence of our faith in Jesus primarily by our love for one another.

In other words, our love ought to be so compelling that even the hardest atheist and the most stubborn hearts would look at our life and see the mark of Christ upon us.

While Jesus accurately calls this a “new commandment,” for this commandment had not been given with this kind of specificity before, the idea is woven throughout the entire Old Testament. God’s people were always intended to be set apart and marked as a people of love.

In Deuteronomy, just before Moses gave the laws to Israel, he spoke of the purpose of the laws in this way, “Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’”

The national laws of ancient Israel were of such high moral fiber that if Israel were to live by them, the surrounding nations would be overwhelmed by the power of the people governed by such rule and living by such love.

At our best, the Church is a people of love. Throughout history, when the Church has been boldly guided by the Spirit into Christ-like sacrificial love of others, the world has indeed taken notice.

In early Christian history, Christians became famous for adopting children who had been cast away from their families and left on the streets to perish. In other centuries, when plagues came upon cities, it was Christians who boldly stayed behind to care for the afflicted. Christians built hospitals, managed orphanages, dug wells, constructed schools, and loved the least of these, not for a paycheck or a plaque, but because Christ had commissioned them to do so.

One famous letter of Church history was written of Christians who were so grossly persecuted for their faith, “They love all men, and are persecuted by all…They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.”

In a world marked by great confusion over the definition of love, it is time for Christians to demonstrate in their lives what love really means.

The time is ripe for bold, selfless, Spirit-filled Christians to serve others in such a way that they take notice. The watching world is looking for an example to follow. The world may disagree with our doctrine, but may they never say we did not love daringly.