Loving Your Community By Stephen ViarsSample

Day 4

They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love

Just before going to the cross, Jesus met with His disciples in the upper room to provide His final instructions before His death, burial, and resurrection. His words, captured in John 13–17, are some of the most tender and passionate of anything recorded in Scripture. Jesus made it clear that His desire was not for His children to be taken out of the world (17:15). He explained that we have a job to do—described in this passage as being sent into the world (17:18). And there is no place for hatred, apathy, self-righteousness, pride, indifference, anger, or any of the tendencies that have too often characterized the way the people of God have related to others. Even a cursory reading of the passage demonstrates that the controlling theme is how the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ makes it possible for His redeemed people to relate to others in love.

In a word, what is desperately needed inside and outside the church is that we would be known for our love.

John, who would later be known as the Apostle of Love, begins his account of these events with this summary: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Those of us who are contemplating what it means to love our communities can take heart in the fact that in doing so, we are simply following in the footsteps of our Savior. He modeled this same emphasis in the way He treated others, including us.

Think of a way the Lord has shown His love to you. How about a way in which another Christian modeled the love of Christ to you? How might you show this same love to someone else?