“Behold how they love one another.” … Tertullian, describing Christians of an earlier age
In Antioch, there was a community, a subculture, an extended family within the city. They were visible. They made their presence known through their love for one another.
But alas, this community didn’t have a name. They acted strangely similar, shared everything, gave much, and lived together. Different types, races, and classes of people lived as brothers and sisters, a connection beyond nationalism or any other worldly group mentality.
But the city didn’t know what to call them. Years after the resurrection of Christ, these people had still refused to give it a name, letting their testimony speak for itself. So the city around them gave them a name and a label. “Little annointed ones.” “Little Christ’s.”
Christians.
So often today we have the name but no community to back it up. Jesus said the world would know we belong to Him because of the love we have for each another.
Behold how they love one another.
The Church is made up of people who should not get along, much less share as those closer than brothers. But they do. Or at least, they should.
When the New Testament describes loving one another, it speaks of things that cannot be done alone. You must be with the Body to love them.
Most Christians have successfully insulated themselves from the Church so they’ll never have to love her. They never spend enough time with the Church to be vulnerable or to engender trust in another to prove themselves good stewards of another’s vulnerability. We don’t have to forgive as Christ because nobody gets close enough to touch us, much less hurt us.
Who you spend the most time with is your fellowship, your church, your house of worship. Jesus spent practically every waking moment of every day with the twelve, then said as He comissioned them: “Love one another as I loved you.” Do we really thing they understood something different by that?
As impossible as this sounds to us, let’s look at it for a moment. Let’s assume you work 40 hours a week. If you get 8 hourse of sleep a night, that’s another 56 hours for a total of 96 hours. Do you know how much time is in a week? 168 hours. Taking away work and sleep, that’s another 72 hours.
Even for a normal American worker, you could almost double the time spent with the Body of Christ than you do at work. How much time do we normally spend with the Church? An hour or two a week looking at the back of their heads? What are you doing with the other 70?
By my earlier standard, most people worship their jobs or entertainment, their “free-time.”
People in the Church should have very little “free-time” as we understand it.
Now, to be clear, I’m not advocating a religious worship service every waking moment. I’m encouraging sacrifice of our self-entertainment and careers for the edification of the Body through fellowship.
So the world can see the love.
But what I suggest has dangerous implications. Maybe you turn down a promotion that would require more of your time. Maybe you sell your home and move in with other Christians to share a different life of abundance. Maybe you see less movies and miss your favorite TV shows. Maybe being hospitable takes priority over who won American Idol.
This seems like too much, so we refuse the sacrifice, redefine love by our romantic sensibilities and continue to call ourselves Christians.
All the while, the world still doesn’t believe it.
Behold how they love one another.
How I long for the day that above all else, the world could say this of us in hushed awe.
Peace.