Perspectives

Christian love and showing the mark

By David Pool
Posted 5/18/23

Some years ago, my mother gave me a Rolex watch. She had been on a trip to Hong Kong and had kindly bought a nice-looking watch for me. The only catch was that it wasn’t a true Rolex. It said …

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Perspectives

Christian love and showing the mark

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Some years ago, my mother gave me a Rolex watch. She had been on a trip to Hong Kong and had kindly bought a nice-looking watch for me. The only catch was that it wasn’t a true Rolex. It said “Rolex” on the face and on the back, and it had the look of a Rolex, but not the price! It wasn’t the real thing. In a world of knockoffs, what’s often needed is some kind of identifying mark of authenticity. 

Did you know that Jesus said that there exists an authenticating mark for Christians? It’s not a piece of jewelry, a tat or a decal to stick on your window. It is something much more active and life changing. Jesus spelled it out in John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you, that you love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples…” 

In other words, he commanded his followers to love each other in the same way he loved us, and he said that would be the mark of the Christian.

Francis Schaeffer points out that this mark should characterize Christians throughout history and in every culture. It is the universal mark of the Christian. But just what is love? Our society has adopted the notion that love is all about feelings. Listen to the lyrics of popular music or watch how love is presented in film, and you will see that it is all about powerful emotions and gratifying feelings, and it is usually self-oriented.

Feelings can be important. But Jesus modeled a much deeper and more significant concept of love. Notice, he said, “as I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  How did Jesus love us? 1 John 3:16 says it was by his laying down his life for us. In other words, love isn't fundamentally understood as mere feelings, it is demonstrated in self-sacrificing actions. Jesus giving his life on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins is the supreme demonstration of what love is.

Can you think of a greater need America has today than to see the love of God demonstrated by followers of Christ? We can talk about love, but Christian love has to be “incarnated,” lived out in the way that we treat one another, and in the words that we use. Our nation is more divided than ever, politics and social media have become the platforms where we destroy and vilify people who don’t share our views. These attacks on people often show a higher commitment to political views than to Jesus. How radical would it be to see Christians demonstrate the kind of love for people that would prove their connection to Jesus Christ?

Let’s recommit ourselves to listening to and living out Jesus’ example and teaching on love. 

(David Pool is the senior pastor at Grace Point Church in Powell.)

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