By Our Love

There is an old hymn that says “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”  Many of us simply take that as a lofty ideal, and as a test for us to know if we are being “good” Christians or not.  If someone can guess I’m a Christian without me directly telling them, then I’ll know I’m on the right track. But is it really just an ideal?  No!  It is a depiction of what will happen when the church is in tune with God and thereby living the way Christ called us to.  It is a statement of fact, that people will then be able to observe that those people must be Christians.

Okay, that makes sense, but how do we know that this is actually attainable?  Well, first off, that thinking puts the burden on ourselves, trying to figure out how we can work to achieve that.  And that is not what Christ teaches; we will only be able to achieve this through Him.  It will be a side-effect of fully giving, living, and loving sacrificially as we are called to do.

The example that shows us this principle in action comes from Acts chapter 11.  The people of the Church in Antioch were spreading the good news of Jesus, and “The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord” (verse 21).  The disciples went to Antioch and continued teaching about Jesus.  And then in verse 26, it says “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”  Wait, so before that, they weren’t called Christians?  Does that mean that people saw their lives and knew they were Christians by their love? Yes, I think that’s exactly what it means.  It was seen that the people and disciples in Antioch were living out the message of Jesus Christ, earning them the name of “Christian”.

When we see a young lad offer to help an old lady across the street, we immediately call him a Boy Scout.  When we see a man trimming the hedges, we immediately call him a gardener.  When we listen to a politician, we can immediately call her a  Democrat or Republican.  It should be the same with us – it should be easy for anyone to look at our lives or listen to our words and immediately call us Christians.