By Love the World Will Know We Are Christians

I’ve been re-reading a short little book by Francis A. Schaeffer called The Mark of the Christian.  It’s a tiny little book with a great big punch.  So, the election is behind us and the mark of a Christian is not an elephant or a donkey or draped in libertarian ideals or environmental justice.  The mark of the Christian is how we approached the election, how we treat (and treated) others, especially other Christians, and how we react to God in the midst of it all.  The mark of the Christian is whether we love one another in the family of God…. as Jesus loves us. 

That standard of love is not superficial based on race or gender or ethnic background.  That standard of love is not how much or how little sin we have committed as if any Christians ought to boast with our comparative righteousness.  That standard of love is this:

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So rather than political parties, labels, group affiliations, lapel pins, necklaces with a cross on them, or even a special haircut, Schaeffer says that there is a “better sign–a mark that has not been thought up just as a matter of expediency for use on some special occasion or in some specific era.  It is a universal mark that is to last through all the ages of the church till Jesus comes back.”

What is this mark?

To Schaeffer, it is found in John 13:33-35…which “reveals the mark that Jesus gives to label a Christian not just in one era or in one locality, but at all times and all places until Jesus returns.”

Upon Christ’s authority, Jesus gives the world “the right to judge whether you and I are born-again Christians on the basis of our observable love toward all Christians.”

So take a look at your Facebook wall, your blog posts, your Gospel Coalition article, your Christianity Today posting–you know, that public display of your heart–by which JESUS gives the WORLD the RIGHT to judge whether you’re a true follower of Christ and ask yourself this important question:  How’s your observable love?