The Foundation of this Campaign - Ron Watts

We are on Day Four in our 40 Days of Community campaign and I hope your readings in the book, Better Together are going well. On p. 178, in the study guide section, you'll find this week's memory verse: John 13:35.

"Your love for one another
will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

Those words of Jesus set the tone for this week's readings. As we love God's family, we are living proof that we are disciples of Jesus. Love is not a mark but the mark of the Christian life.

How many times have you heard a skeptic ask, “How can you expect me to accept the message of Christianity when the church is full of hypocrites?” Oftentimes, “hypocrite” is used as a catchall phrase encompassing anything that the skeptic finds objectionable (or thinks Christians find objectionable and don’t live up to). While this argument is very unconvincing to me (it’s like saying, “I’m not going to a hospital – it’s full of sick people!”) it’s painfully accurate when we Christians fail to love one another.

Take Jesus’ statement and put it in the negative, “Your lack of love for one another will prove to the world that you are not my disciples.” What kind of witness are we being to the watching eyes around us?

This is often called “the great commandment.” It is Jesus’ highest – and most difficult – command. How do we live up to it? It begins on the receiving end.

Brennan Manning, who spoke at La Croix during my sabbatical, said “To me, it's more important to be loved than to love. When I have not had the experience of being loved by God, just as I am and not as I should be, then loving others becomes a duty, a responsibility, a chore. But if I let myself be loved as I am, with the love of God poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit, then I can reach out to others in a more effortless way.”

In other words, you can’t give away what you don’t have. We can’t possibly live up to this command unless we have first received God’s love. How about you? Are you convinced that God loves you unconditionally? Have you received that love?

Knowing Jesus Christ and receiving God’s love is the basis for our 40 Days of Community campaign. That hasn’t been said up to now, but it’s the foundation we build on.