I remember in youth group back in the seventies singing the song They’ll Know We are Christians by Our Love. The lyrics say,
We are one in the Spirit we are one in the Lord, and we pray that all unity will one day be restored. We will work with each other, we will work side by side, and we’ll guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride. We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, and together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
How are we doing with that? How would the people with whom we interact characterize Christians based on our behavior and speech, particularly on social media?
Recently I read a discussion board post in which a professing Christian referred to Democrats as “demon-crats.” The implication was that Republicans have the favor of God and Democrats do not. The conflation of politics and religion, and worse, Republicanism and Christianity, was troubling.
Sadly, based on what I see on my own social media pages, this man’s post is not all that exceptional. If I were to rewrite They’ll Know We are Christians to reflect the portrayal of some professing Christians on social media, might the lyrics go something like, “They will know we are Christians by our…vitriol? snark? bitterness? rancor? politics?” I realize the political divide in America is cavernous. And some of the policies held by the current administration fly directly in the face of biblical values. But is entering into the fracas spewing in-the-name-of-Jesus venom consistent with the teachings and commands of that Name? Shouldn’t serious followers of Jesus Christ be leading the world in loving engagement? Isn’t forgetting 1 Corinthians 13:1 causing the Christian message to be regarded as just more clamorous piling on?
Christ’s Ambassadors
2 Corinthians 5:20 teaches that through Christians, God is appealing to the world to reconcile to him. We are his ambassadors. Noah Webster defined ambassador this way: “A minister of the highest rank employed by one prince or state, at the court of another, to manage the public concerns of his own prince or state, and representing the power and dignity of his sovereign.”
An ambassador represents his king and country. And our King commands us to love, because our Country has love as its very air. What defines a Christian, the thing that makes us look different, must be love.
The Bible is clear. “Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another” (John 13:34). “And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:21). “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11). “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). “Hate stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses” (Proverbs 10:12). “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8). Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29). “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” (1 Peter 2:12).
Lest someone argue that these directives are only applicable within the church,
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (Matthew 5:43-48)
Christian Love
Christian love means freedom to love our enemies. We are secure in Christ and have nothing to fear, because “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). Christians are the keepers and purveyors of what the world so desperately needs: truth and justice. Spewing vitriol in the name of Jesus negates the message, disqualifies us as ambassadors, and sorely misrepresents God.
Christian love is not a passive, flaccid emotion. It is stalwart, powerful, and resolute. It involves sacrifice, suffering, and self-denial. Christian love is praying for leaders God has placed over us, even the ones with whom we disagree. It is “seeking the welfare of our city” (Jeremiah 29:7), engaging people on the ground, listening to and serving with unflagging empathy those we would rather discard and disdain. Because they are image bearers. Empathy does not equal agreement. Empathy demonstrates the heart of Christ.
Once We Were…But God
Christian, before you post, before you vilify and demonize an image bearer or an entire people group with whom you disagree, remember who you were before Jesus Christ plucked you from the mire of your futile thinking (Romans 1:21).
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air…But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-2 and 4-7).
The command is to love. Christians must be leading the charge.