And they'll know we are Christians...

"We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord...
and we pray that our unity will one day be restored,
and they'll know we are Christians by our love..."

(Disclaimer: this opening anecdote is going to be extremely vague in order to conceal identities.)

Several weeks ago I was reading a letter written to someone I'm associated with.  Throughout the entirety of this letter, the author berated the recipient for basically being a terrible human being (the author's perception, not mine).  The letter was riddled with vulgarities and insults towards this person, and everyone he/she was associated with.  Prior to this letter, I had to interact with the author a number of times, and each time that person was rude, often insulting, and generally would end up hanging up on me, or dramatically storming away. 

So as I was reading this letter, I was thinking to myself that the author must be a truly miserable person because he/she just seemed to spew venom with every word spoken. And then, after several pages, I got to the end of that letter.  There it was in black and white.  This person started quoting Scripture, and talking about how great it is that God loves us all, and that we need to be saved through Christ Jesus to be with Him in heaven someday. 

I must have reread that last page about 20 times, thinking to myself, what just happened?!? You spent several pages insulting this person, telling him/her how terrible he/she is, and then you have the audacity to reference God's love?!? The author of this letter was truly one of the most unpleasant people I've ever had to interact with, and let me tell you, in the line of work that I'm currently in, I deal with A LOT of unpleasantness. 

After the initial shock of the realization that this person was apparently some form of Christian, I really started to think.  I would never in a million years have thought that this individual knew anything about Jesus, or had ever even cracked open a Bible, let alone been able to quote scripture and give a gospel presentation. 

Which got me thinking about that old spiritual "and they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, and they'll know we are Christians by love." 

How are we living? Are we living a life full of love that has people seeing that we are different?  Or are our friends, relatives and acquaintances shocked when they find out that we are Believers? 

Now, we may not write nasty letters to people, or shout insults or profanities when we don't get our way, but what about all the other ways we aren't evidencing Love (capital intended, as in God is Love) in our lives?  What about all the judgment that we offer to people who are different from us? What about the gossiping, the backbiting, the cliques, the in-fighting that happens even within our own churches? Our own families?

I feel as though I don't need to expound on this much further. We all know the areas in our lives where we are showing anything but Love to those around us. 

Take a good hard look at your life.  Will people know you are a Christian by your love, or will they be shocked to find out you are a follower of Jesus? 

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord,

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord,

and we pray that our unity will one day be restored,

and they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,

and they'll know we are Christians by our love.

-AA