| “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” |
| —John 13:34 |
Have you ever attended a sporting event like a baseball game, a basketball game, a football game, or a soccer match? Have you ever gone to the softball field to watch your own church softball team play? I understand that on the softball field you can learn a great deal about your fellow believers. You should seriously think about attending one of those games.
If you do attend a game, or even if you watch your favorite sports team on television, you can always tell the members of the team by the fact that they all wear the same uniforms. Every one of the players on the team all dress in the same clothing. You can easily identify the team members.
The next time you attend church, look around the sanctuary or auditorium. Everyone in that room will have dressed in very unique clothes. And yet, almost everyone present has chosen to join the same team. That’s right. Most all present belong to the same team. And, the captain of that team is the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, when we look at each other, how can we tell that we belong to the same team? In the Bible lesson found in John 13:31-35, please note these words:
31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Here, Jesus gives His disciples a new command. So, Jesus, Himself, has told us that the way we will know we belong to the same team—the way we will know that we belong to Jesus—comes from the fact that we show love for one another. Showing that we love each other by respect, by kind words, and by kind deeds provides the mark of someone who belongs to Jesus Christ—someone whom we call a Christian, or a “Christ’s-one.”
Let’s rejoice that we can identify our fellow team members.
