Commandment

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

 - From John 13

I feel that the statement by the Lord speaks for itself. It needs no explanation or reflection. He means what he says, and He says what He means.

But if were so very clear, we would not have certain problems today, for instance:

• Christians dividing against themselves, in order to take sides in secular politics
• Church members with problems paying medical, college, or emergency bills
• A divorce rate among believers, to match that of non-believers

And I could probably go on . . . 

The three examples would be unheard of, let alone though of, if Christians really loved one another. 

People should be flocking into churches, just because of the health care, the help finding jobs, the financial support. In fact, families should be so good at this, that the Church isn't even required for this purpose. 

Christians should be modeling highly functional marriages and families that are greater than the sum of their parts. No exceptions.

The world should not be able to point the finger at the Church and assert "Hypocrite!" They should envy the way the Church takes care of its own, and the needy in its communities. Secularists should be beside themselves doing it better, but in vain. It should become clearly obvious that the government is no substitute for real charity.

And Christians should not . . . should not . . . be taking sides against other believers. If the Church was unified in our times, unconditionally, so many of our problems would simply fade away. 

The key concept in today's passage is: new commandment.

There is only one appropriate response to a commandment from the Lord . . . especially a commandment that He says is more important than all the others.