35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
With verse 35 Jesus focused on the continuance of exercising His kind of love and its impact on the world.
35 By this all will know that you are My disciples,
People will know the distinctiveness of Christians by the nature of their sacrificial love for one another (1 Jn 3:14). It will be patently observable.
if you have love for one another.”
Believers’ love for each other is a testimony both to fellow believers and to the world.
PRINCIPLE:
Loving one another invites a test of validity of genuine Christian living.
APPLICATION:
As Jesus embodied the Father’s love, so His disciples are to embody His love. The single identifying mark of being a Christian is to love other Christians. Love is the badge of being a Christian. Our identity as Christians is not how much we know or how we serve but our love for other believers.
Much of the epistle of First John deals with the subject of Christians loving one another. In that book John argued that believers should sacrifice self-interest for others. It is a love of action and personal cost.
Those who hate others or have malice toward fellow Christians undermine what Christianity is all about.
