Verse of the Day 12-21-22

Love: The Distinguishing Factor in Christians

By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another. (John 13:35 NASB)

            What is the distinguishing factor that makes Christians different from those around them? The answer is love, but not just an old love but Godly love (in Greek agape). It is this agape love that must the distinguishing factor for anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ. But what is this agape love? It is basically a self-giving and sacrificial love that seeks and promotes the good of others (1 John 4:9-10).

            Relationships among fellow followers of Christ must be characterized by this kind of love and devotion. Why? Because if this type of love is missing, people outside the church (those who are not followers of Christ) will not get an accurate picture of Christ’s love and will see no reason to consider being part of his church. We as followers of Christ must befriend each other through difficulties, be careful of each other’s feelings and reputations, and put aside their own interests in order to promote each other’s welfare (1 Corinthians 13; Galatians 6:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:22; 2 Peter 1:7 and 1 John 3:23).

            Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 gives us the best description of agape love looks like when we wrote these words:

If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may glory, but do not have love, it does me no good.

Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part and prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (NASB)

Today’s Bible Readings:

Zechariah 1, Revelation 12, Psalm 140:1-13 and Proverbs 30:17