Love Makes the Difference - Homeword - January 15

Love Makes the Difference

This devotional was written by Jim Burns

A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. 
—John 13:34-35

As you look at today's Scripture, think of it in this way: the world has the right to judge whether there is a God or not a God by the way we Christians love each other.

Yes, the world will know us by our fruit. There is no greater witness of God's love on earth than when Christians love in the same manner as Jesus loves.

Here is how historian Aristides described the Christians to the Roman Emperor Hadrian:

They love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If they have something, they give freely to the man who has nothing; if they see a stranger, they take him home and are happy, as though he were a real brother. They don't consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit, in God. *

Aristides was describing the kingdom of God made visible by believers. One of the major duties of every Christian is to make the invisible kingdom of God visible.

GOING DEEPER:

1. What will your love for others tell people about you? Why does Jesus make loving one another a commandment?

2. Think about this question, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

FURTHER READING:

1 John 2:7-11, 3:11, Leviticus 19:18, 1 Thessalonians 4:9, 1 Peter 1:22

*Charles Colson, Loving God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983), p, 176.

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