I have glossed over the impact of John 13. How do the words of Jesus hit you? One thought hit me is that our world focuses on acquisition of power, influence over others, and an accumulation of wealth and knowledge. We often calculate comparisons with who has more or who knows more. But there is no scale to measure the depth and length of love. Yet the world has a right to see if we are a hypocrite, or whether we are truly authentic in our faith by the we treat others. I’m guilty of failing so many times but God’s grace gets me to stand up again after falling down. Instead of making attempts to do more ‘for’ God, I’m learning to be ‘with’ His presence, allowing me to experience His working.
“In John 13 the point was that, if an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that he is not a Christian. Here Jesus is stating something else which is much more cutting, much more profound: We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus’ claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians.” - Francis A. Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian
"If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer: Intercession is a way of loving others." - Richard J. Foster
No comments:
Post a Comment