when you stop to think about what marks us as followers of Jesus Christ, it's not signs and wonders, miracles, amazing giftings, talent or abilities...
"your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples.”
- john 13:35 (new living translation)
love is the hallmark of the believer of Jesus.
love is what sets us apart as His.
love is what identifies us as His followers.
love is the proof and the evidence that we belong to Him.
love - a word we so often mistake for romance, lust, fluttery feelings, comfort, ease, preferences...
love is giving when it's easier to keep.
forgiving when we'd rather hold a grudge.
believing when it's easier to give up.
smiling when we'd rather frown.
serving when it's easier to demand.
sacrificing when we'd rather hold back.
showing kindness when it's easier to show justice.
in fact... 1 corinthians says that i could do AMAZING THINGS for God (eg. give away EVERYTHING i have to the poor, even be a martyr!), BUT without love... it's nothing.
the absence of love negates whatever i've done...
if i give without love, the gift is nothing from His point of view.
wow.
"...if i could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, i would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
if i had the gift of prophecy, and if i understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if i had such faith that i could move mountains, but didn’t love others, i would be nothing.
if i gave everything i have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, i could boast about it; but if i didn’t love others, i would have gained nothing.
love is patient and kind.
love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
it does not demand its own way.
it is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
it does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins...
love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful,
and endures through every circumstance..."
- 1 corinthians 13 (new living translation)
so take a moment and ask yourself...
if i was to be judged by love alone, how i treat people, my attitude and actions towards others...would the world know i belong to Jesus?
"go after a life of love as if your life depended on it — because it does."
- 1 corinthians 14:1
