What Are We Know For

Can people tell that you are a disciple of Jesus? If someone did a background check on you, went thru your social media, and interviewed your neighbors talked to your coworkers, what would they say? What are you know for?

What did Jesus say would make people realize that you were a disciple of Jesus?

Before we answer that let look at something he didn’t say:

They will know you are my disciple by how…

You always vote for the right candidate, love your country and support the schools.

You have a fish sticker on your car and Bible verse plaque on your desk and wear your church T-shirt every casual Friday

You make your opposition to moral political issue well known to all.

You can quote scripture with the best of them.

You share all the religious memes, like all the faith-based pictures and forward the prayer chain to 10 friends every time

Your name is in the directory, your face is on the picture board and address is on the contact list

You keep your nose clean, your lawn mowed and your and ducks in a row.

You don’t drink, smoke, or chew or go with girls that do

Now these are not bad things, but if we look at what Jesus did say it might change your focus.

John 13:34-35

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

Catch that? Jesus said that by love people will see that we follow him. You can say all the right things, have the right gifts, know all there is to know, be a stalwart of faith give it your all and it can mean nothing (1^st Corinthians 13:1-3). Love is the trait we must-have for all the other to have meaning.

Comments

I Know All Those Words, But That Sentence Makes No Sense To Me

Let’s say you travel back in time six hundred years or so. Luckily, you happen across a fellow that speaks English. Upon hearing your tale, he describes you as nice, smart, and handsome. Wouldn’t you feel good? You shouldn’t. As Sol Steinmetz in his book, Semantics Antics , explains; Nice originally meant someone who was foolish, ignorant, senseless, or absurd (middle English 1300). Smart for the first 300 years of its use meant causing pain, sharp, cutting, or severe, a sense that survives in the idiom "smart as a whip.” Handsome wasn’t complimentary. When coined around 1425, it just meant easily handled; it didn’t have its current positive connotation until 1590. You might think he said you were a kind, intelligent, good looking bloke, when in reality he said you were a foolish pain easily dealt with. Words have an annoying habit of changing meaning over time in the same language and it becomes even more compli...

Master Your Self

In a contest for the toughest president of the United States, it would be hard to go against Theodore Roosevelt. He was known for his “manly” pursuits hunting big game, climbing the Matterhorn, participating in boxing match while president. (These weren’t play fights, he lost the vision on one eye because of them!) Once before he was about to give a speech an assassin shot him in the chest. Roosevelt refused to go to a hospital and insisted on giving his speech, still wearing his blood-soaked shirt! Teddy might have become tough but he wasn’t born that way. He was a sickly child that suffered from severe asthma that almost proved fatal. As was a young boy, doctors discovered that he had a weak heart, and advised him to get a desk job and not strain himself. He was homeschooled because of his many illnesses and spent most of his time indoors. But then as a teen his father, whom Teddy Roosevelt revered, told his son, “ ...

Until Midnight

In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

Ecclesiastes 12:10

Search This Blog