This Is How They’ll Know

Carl Pollard

Have you ever walked into a room and immediately known what mattered there?Walk into someone’s house and see family pictures covering the walls, and you know what matters. Walk into a teenager’s room and see posters, trophies, instruments, and jerseys, and you get an idea of what matters to them. Usually, what matters eventually becomes visible.

That raises an important question, If someone walked into our congregation knowing absolutely nothing about us, what would tell them that we belong to Jesus?

Jesus gave an answer on the night before He died. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you… By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34–35

Jesus calls love a commandment. That means biblical love has to be more than an emotion. You can’t command chemistry or warm feelings, but you can command patience, kindness, forgiveness, sacrifice, service, and compassion.

That becomes especially important because the closer you get to people, the more of their flaws you see. From a distance, everybody is fairly easy to love. Get close enough and you’ll discover annoying habits, disagreements, selfishness, bad days, and disappointments. And they’ll discover the same things in us! 

Jesus never said His people would always be easy to love. He simply said, “Love one another.” Then He raised the standard even higher. “Just as I have loved you.”

Think about who was sitting around Jesus when He said those words. Peter would deny Him. Thomas would doubt. The disciples would scatter. Judas had already arranged to betray Him. Yet Jesus had just knelt down and washed their feet.

Jesus loved imperfect people. He loved people who disappointed Him. Within hours, He would go to the cross for them. That’s our standard! And Jesus says the world should be able to see it.

They see it when Christians visit the hospital, bring food to a grieving family, forgive each other, notice the lonely, check on someone who’s missing, carry burdens, and genuinely enjoy being together.

None of those things will make headlines, but they make Jesus visible.

There will be times when your faith is strong and you’re carrying someone else. There will also be times when you walk through the church doors barely holding it together and someone has to carry you.

That’s why God gave us one another.

May we become the kind of church where someone can spend time around us, watch how we treat each other, and leave thinking, “Those people really belong to Jesus.”

Because Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples.” This is how they’ll know.