Know For Love

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34–35

“The world will not know we are Christians by our church buildings, our sermons, or our theology alone, but by the way we love one another. Love is the visible evidence that Jesus is real.”

I was meeting with a pastor yesterday and we were talking about how to reach the city. We started talking about the issues in the city — division, unforgiveness, broken relationships, and people far from God. But as we kept talking, we realized something: the problems in the city are often the same problems in the church. There is division in the church. There is unforgiveness in the church. There are believers who won’t talk to each other, serve together, or forgive each other.

We can’t expect to fix the problems of our cities or reach the lost if the church does not first model John 13. Jesus said the world would know we belong to Him by our love for one another. Not by our services, not by our programs, not by our arguments — but by our love.

Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor. That includes other believers. How can we reach the lost if we are bitter toward other Christians? How can we preach reconciliation if we won’t reconcile ourselves?

This morning I’m praying for unity in the church — not for the sake of a big event or a picture we can post online, but for real love, real forgiveness, real unity. The kind of love that makes non-believers stop and say, “Something is different about them.”

It starts with us. Maybe there is someone you need to forgive. Maybe there is someone you need to call. Maybe there is someone you need to sit down with and make things right.

We need to be known for our love as Christians. That’s how the world will see Jesus. That’s how people come into the Kingdom.