What Truly Marks a Christian?
Imagine for a moment being visited by an alien. Not just one of those ordinary little green aliens, but a particularly keen and observant one. One who was very careful to listen and take notes and make connections and watch with interest. What might he conclude distinguishing feature of a Christian? If he visited our community group, what would he note? If he loitered in the back before the service on Sunday, what would he be struck by? If he used advanced avian technology to listen in on our conversations as we talked with and about other Christians in no more than 280 characters, what would he learn? How would we be different? What would he say marks the Christian out from every other kind of person in our city? What conclusions would rise to the top?
Would it be certain life-style commitments? A more than Minnesota-nice niceness? Traditional (perhaps “old-fashioned”) views on moral matters? A spirited defense of human life? Perhaps an eagerness to own the libs, to push back the dark powers of wokeness, or do everything possible to unseat a narcissistic leader? Would even conversation about Jesus and his work in the world be enough for him to confidently identify a follower of Jesus?
Now, consider for a moment that this alien is actually your neighbor, your co-worker, your college classmate, your friend at school. What would a non-Christian say marks out the Christian from everybody else?
In John 13, Jesus defines what distinguishes his disciples from the rest of the world—and it may surprise you. Listen carefully to what he says:
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also 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).
Jesus says something peculiar here: A “new” commandment? We might imagine the disciples thinking, “But Jesus, hasn’t God always desired that his people love one another? After all, you yourself taught us that whole law is summed up in “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself?”
Jesus isn’t recycling a common biblical mandate, he is pointing at how his death, resurrection, and ascension will materially change his people’s love for one another—and the nature and character of that love will be impossible to see in anyone else. It will be new because it will be his love—the love that is shared between him and the Father, poured out on his people in the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. In John 17, Jesus prays:
O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them (Jn 17:25-26).
And it is this love for other Christians that unmistakably marks out our connection to Jesus and our connection to one another. It is a love that constantly draws on our identity as Jesus’s blood-bought disciples and dearly loved friends. It is marked by a confidence that we can give up anything (and everything) we have for the sake of one another because we are family—fellow heirs together with Christ. It is a love that makes us do things for Christians that we wouldn’t do for just anyone. It is a love that maximizes our shared identity in Christ and treat our disagreements over preferences with humility, understanding, and generosity.
It is a love that that Paul calls in 1 Cor “a yet more extraordinary way”; a love toward one another, empowered by the Spirit, that is patient and kind, a love that does not envy or boast; a love that is not arrogant or rude. A love that does not insist on its own way; that is not irritable or resentful; that does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It is a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
And it is a Spirit-empowered love for one another that only Christians have. For the sake of Christ, our neighbor should see it in our interactions with other Christians. How are we doing, this morning?
Are we inclined to believe the best or speak the worst of fellow Christians? Do we rejoice in our fellow believers’ triumph or resent their successes? Do we laud others’ gifts or audibly envy what we don’t possess? How might we lean on the Spirit of Christ for the love that he has for us and for fellow believers in Christ? Let’s pause in silent confession and consider the degree to which our lives are characterized by this love for one another, asking that the Spirit of the living Christ so fill us and shape us that our love for fellow Christians would be the distinguishing witness that Jesus is real.