The Mark of the True Follower

Love is the mark of the true follower of Christ the badge of the believer. In Jesus’ day, the disciples of the Pharisees were identified by their religious garb and doctrine. But Jesus said to His followers, ''Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples''

John 13:34-35 NASB

(34) "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

(35) "By this all men will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another."

The love we share is not just human love but the love of Christ.

Love is more than simply warm feelings; it is an attitude that reveals itself in action. By helping when it is not convenient, by giving when it hurts, by devoting energy to other's welfare rather than our own, by absorbing hurts from others without complaining or fighting back. 

This kind of love is hard to do. That is why people notice when you do it and know you are empowered by a supernatural source. 

The Bible has another description of love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NASB

(1) If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

(2) If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

(3) And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

(4) Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,

(5) does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,

(6) does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

(7) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

(8) Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

(9) For we know in part and we prophesy in part;

(10) but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

(11) When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

(12) For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

(13) But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Grove Oak Church