By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Who knew that that vacation bible school song was so fundamentally core as Christians? They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love. So simple. So not easy.
Everyone will know we are disciples, if we but love. So what’s gone so horribly wrong in the world? With Christians fighting Christians. Or with distrust, bad intentions, and malice in their hearts.
And what can we do to change it? When I’m at my best, I hope people can know I’m a disciple by my love for others. When I’m at my best, I’m good. But I’m not always at my best. In fact, I’m more often than not, not at my best. My shining best moments are measured by weeks, not by days or hours. If I have a best moment where I can be identified as a disciple because of my love, that’s great. But if it’s followed by a long time where my actions don’t expose me as a follower of Christ, that’s not so great.
I certainly can’t be my best all of the time; there’s something singular about ‘best’, marking it distinct from all of the other times. Maybe we need to figure out how to have the mediocre, average, or even crummy times be equally infused with love, so even on a bad day, someone can know I’m a Christian by my love.
We don’t need to be outwardly emotive of love all of the time; we couldn’t sustain that. But perhaps I can approach every interaction, every person remembering that they are a beloved child of God, and the love can show forth in my eyes. Maybe I can create prompts throughout the day to remind me to get the love back in my hands, so that my actions are infused with love.
Earlier in this story, we read “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” On this, Jesus’ last supper, Jesus loved his disciples to the end. Through their betrayal of Jesus, their denial of Jesus, their abandonment of Jesus. I have the honor of reading this passage every year as we celebrate the last supper and Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. This sentence, he loved them to the end, always chokes me up. I can imagine Jesus’ loving, sad smile, and loving, knowing eyes, as he sups with his friends, and washes their feet. He loved them to the end.
Maybe that’s what we need. It’s not so much the ‘best moments’ that need to be infused with love. It’s more that our souls need to be infused with love. We need to love always, love everyone. Then even if we’re doing something mundane like sharing dinner, or tidying up before dinner, people can see the love. Then they will know we are Christians by our love.
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