JOHN 13:34-35 – 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.”
THEME OF THE DAY: THIS IS WHAT REALLY MATTERS. So, what type of reputation do we have as Christians? When our names are dropped in conversations, and yes, our names will be dropped in conversations with Christians and non-Christians alike because humans have this bent toward talking about people, what will be said of us?
Sadly, those conversations don’t always fall into the category the Apostle Paul defines – Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29), but speech isn’t the theme of the day. Something else is and that something else is what really matters. In fact, get this right, and speech, along with everything else in life, will be right, Christ-honoring and a blessing to all.
When it comes to the reputation of every Christian, we are to be marked by two things, two primary things. They were found in a glowing Christian named Philemon and are to be found in us. They are faith and love – I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints (Philemon 4-5). Oh, may it never be true of any of us that when our names are mentioned by anyone the immediate thoughts and responses are “complainer, gossiper, slanderer, unkind, impatient, irritable, negative, and discourager.” Such qualities are to be found in unbelievers and never named among God’s people. To have a reputation containing any of those ungodly traits does two things; betrays our profession of faith and thus confusing those watching and hearing us and misrepresents the Person of the Lord Jesus. It has been said many times over, and it is true, “The only Jesus some people will ever see is us.” Let that sink in as we evaluate our reputations.
So, if we are to build a reputation of faith and love toward the Lord Jesus and all other believers, today’s scripture must become our passion and pursuit. Jesus makes it crystal clear and not open to self-justification or misinterpretation; His true disciples love His true disciples. It is love from Him to them that is impartial, sacrificial, not self-serving, and patterned exclusively after Him. Now please pay attention. The Lord is not telling us we are known as His true disciples by how much knowledge of Him we obtain, how gifted we are for Him, and how much sacrificial service we do in His Name. All have their place but not first place. We can actually have all three of those just mentioned qualities in our lives and fall short of what Jesus says is the true mark of being His disciple – love for other disciples.
In evaluating our reputations and examining ourselves before Jesus’ criteria to be His disciple, take a few moments and listen to the Apostle Paul’s cut on this most important of issues – If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and 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 Corinthians 13:1-3).
PRAYER: “Father, may my life be one controlled by and reflecting the love of the Lord Jesus to all people.”
QUOTE: “Strive to know more of the love of Christ which demands not only study but a life of earnest prayer”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim