MUSINGS
The Only Mark of a Disciple WORDS MICHAEL TAN, PCC MEMBER
John 13:34-35
John 15:12-13
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
34
From my earliest encounters with the Christian faith more than four decades ago, I had always associated it with love; more precisely, that God is love. I was probably not alone as most people from the outside looking into the church would describe our faith as one characterised by love. It is therefore somewhat sad that four decades later, from the inside for so long now, my faith’s interaction with love does not seem tenuous or entwined enough. Yes, I have mellowed, probably kinder, slower to anger, more considerate of others, actively serving in church etc. but these do not add up to me as one that is driven by love. Sadly. 48
12
Jesus’s final words to His disciples before His betrayal were very pointed, leaving no wriggle room for misunderstanding: if the world were to know we are His disciples, the unmissable and unmistakable trait would simply be that we love one another. I think what Jesus was saying was that even if His disciples did not get all that He shared in His three years of life and ministry with them, the sum of all that He was teaching them would be adequately manifested when His disciples love one another. A love that makes one willing to lay down his life for a friend, which He was about to demonstrate first-hand for them shortly.
