“By this,” Jesus said, “all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Here Jesus gives us an apologetic we’ve lost sight of. One of the blessings that come with God’s people loving one another is those not God’s people are better able to recognize God’s people. It shows His glory. We, on the other hand, would rather argue worldviews, amass compelling evidence, make bold prophetic statements. What God would rather have us do is to love one another. God would rather we do the hard thing, for that is where the power is.
The common bumper sticker makes a salient point. The watching world affirms that what makes Christians so reprehensible is our hypocrisy. They see us sin, while believing we believe that we don’t sin. And they hate us for it. The sticker, then, answers the objection: “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.”
We’re not perfect. We are forgiven. But the forgiveness we have from the Father works itself out when we in turn forgive others. How many times does Jesus remind us of this connection? We who have been forgiven much manifest that truth in forgiving others. Perhaps that ought to be our bumper sticker: “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiving.” I’m afraid the world around us may find that too hard to swallow. They know us all too well.
We’re accustomed to thinking of worldliness in the narrowest of contexts, if we
think of it at all. We think it a synonym for pleasure, as if the devil has cornered that market. Our problem, however, isn’t that we go to movies or dance like the world, but that we think like the world. We and they think, where every human interaction is a battle, a zero-sum game that you either win or lose. We suspect, rather than trust, one another. We are intent on protecting our interests. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and no one likes to be eaten.
“Love suffers long, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, and bears all things. If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2b–3).
Love is the antithesis of the grasping paranoia that marks the world. Love, in short, is the very fruit of our own deaths. As we die to self, we are no longer interested in keeping score, feel no need to protect our own interests. When our brothers wrong us us, we find forgiving easy, for who can harm a dead man? We let our lives shine before men, and show them that we are His.
A very wise man once said, “Never ask God for justice. He might just give it to you.” What defines us is that we are a people who have been given grace. We were not only given the grace of forgiveness, but were given the grace of repentance. As we keep our sins ever before us, we will see His forgiveness ever before us. And we won’t have opportunity to see the speck in our brother’s eye.
A day will come by God’s grace when His church won’t be known for hypocrisy. Our reputation won’t be built around the things we’re against. All will know that we are His by our love one for another. That love will show itself the same way God’s love for us is shown, in our zeal to forgive one another. Every man, as he passes by a church, will know that this is the place where you will find forgiveness. Not only from our Father, but from our brothers and sisters as well. We hasten that day as His will is done on earth as it is in heaven, as we love and forgive like only His children can do.
