A Series on Love: Part 1 -- "By This"

The Pharisees obeyed 613 rules above and beyond what God had originally prescribed in the Pentateuch. As if the Levitical system and laws given by Moses were not difficult enough to follow, they added another six hundred for good measure, just in case, to be on the safe side. When confronted by God himself, they could make no excuses. Christ said unto them, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices -- mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law -- justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:23, 24, NIV). In perfecting the external, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees had neglected the internal and the eternal. What they had forgotten was to obey God and practice justice, mercy, and faithfulness; in a word, love.

In conservative circles, Christians are donning a unique and sometimes radically different look and behavior. Trends are occurring in these circles. Our girls wear dresses, have long hair, and bake bread from freshly ground wheat. Families have 10 children in homemade clothes (by their sisters), all homeschooled, who sit still for all of the church service and who obey immediately. We drive big conversion vans, have submissive wives, sons who are chivalrous, and girls who desire to be good mothers and wives, too. We don't date and we do everything as a family. The above is all good. In fact, it is great! On the other hand, we can not cling to these things to distinguish us from the rest of the world. Christ explained just after Judas left to betray him what separated the elect from unbelievers: "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35, emphasis added).

So it isn't having 10 children and gentle wives and making homemade bread and having family worship every night and having children who obey immediately, completely, and with a happy heart and educating at home and practicing courtship and understanding tough doctrinal issues (pant) that signals to the rest of the world, "These are Christians!" No it isn't. In fact, Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 13 that unless our actions are bound up in and driven by love, they are meaningless.

We will be known by love because God so loved us with an "everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). 1 John 4:7 explains, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." "God is love" (1 John 4:16) and "love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:8).

Then are the above things (large families, obedient children and wives, home cooking, etc.) bad or unnecessary? Of course not but we can not detach the internal and eternal (love) from the external (actions). We were not saved through our actions but through the love of our Heavenly Father. As Jesus pointed out, we must practice action without neglecting the important matters of the heart. Then the world will know we are Christians by our love.

--HM