Proof of Discipleship
Debbie and I have been preparing for a small group gathering at our home. We have invited Rod and Jenny Carlson to come and share some of their scripture memory ministry. We are looking forward to this time and our first opportunity since coming home from the hospital to host people in our home.
After a rest day yesterday, I had a good fitness center workout today. My goal is to be as consistent as possible over the next month and see if I can see some significant process while keeping away from any illness or infections.
I’m posting a picture today that I consider the “cutest” Halloween costumes of the season. I’m not sure of the origin and many may have seen this. I’m not sure if it is the “cute factor” or that I am using a walker or a precursor of what the next 20 or so years may look like.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34,35
John 13 begins the series of chapters known as the “upper room discourse” of Jesus. These chapters cover the most extensive teaching of Jesus with His disciples before He goes to the cross.
Jesus has taught the first and second commandment, “love the Lord your God with all your heart soul, mind and strength…love you neighbor as yourself.” He has addressed Peter’s question about forgiving someone who offends you by saying not seven times, but seventy times seven. Now as He prepares to leave the work of the Kingdom of God, He communicates the priority of their servant-hearted attitudes, their unity, and the promise of the Holy Spirit. There is no quality that will undergird their unity as their love for each other.
This love for each other was not just a command, it was a command for them to love each other as Jesus had loved them. Jesus love was unconditional, it was sacrificial. The Apostle John would later write, “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another….By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1 John 3:11,16)
I have always found it interesting that John 3:16 talks about God’s love being revealed in Christ giving His life for us and 1 John 3:16 talks about how we ought to lay down our lives for others.
The famous words of Benjamin Franklin on signing the Declaration of Independence were, “gentlemen we must all hang together or we shall surely hang separately.” Jesus had faced opposition and persecution and He knew that His disciples would face the same thing when He was gone. Their unity was more than any “human cause” it was based on a commitment to Christ and loving each other as He had loved them.
Finally, the disciples love for one another would be proof of their discipleship. Notice love is not individualized love, but a love among them collectively. The proof of discipleship was to be an “atmosphere of love” that permeated their lives and community and which would bear witness to others of Christ’s reality.
Christians today as Christ-followers have the same challenge before us. This is only possible through what Christ can do as we experience His love and endeavor with His help to show the same to others. This also shows the value and importance of our faith being lived out in community with other believers. That was Christ’s purpose for His disciples as He taught in the upper room and it is His desire for His disciples today.