They'll know we are Christians by our love

 

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.  --Colossians 3:15

When I was growing up in the early 1970s, our church youth group would sing a chorus almost every time we met.  It said, "They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love; yes they'll know we are Christians by our love."

Outside the Church during that time a cultural revolution was taking place.  Young people who had no Christian background were all clamoring for "peace."  What started as a protest against war in Viet Nam sort of melded into a call for a generic, hazy idea promoting an absence of conflict in all relationships, not just geopolitical ones.

Since that time there has been a union in people's minds, a conflagration of peace and love.  The thinking was that you could not have one without the other.  As time went on, however, the American culture was still searching for both, and people started adding other things, as if peace and love alone were inadequate.  Phrases like, "Peace, Love, and Rock-n-Roll" became commercialized.  Tee shirts were printed and worn all over the place.  Soon, people were selling all kinds of things using that catch-phrase.  "Peace, Love, and Beer" or "Peace, Love, and Ice Cream" or "Peace, Love, and (fill-in-the-blank).

In our study of the book of John, we have seen several themes, not the least of which are love and peace.  Jesus returned to these specific themes as He was preparing His disciples for His departure from them.  They still did not realize that He was speaking of His crucifixion, but it was dawning on them that a day was soon coming where Jesus would not be with them.  Jesus gave them careful instruction on how to carry on after He was taken from them.

The disciples heard Jesus say, "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me."  Then Jesus said, "He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." (John 14:19, 21).

This raised a question in one disciple's mind.

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.  These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.  Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.'  If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.  I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.  But that the world may know I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.  Arise, let us go from here."  --John 14:22-31

Judas, the disciple that unfortunately shared a name with the traitor of our Lord, posed a serious question:  If You are going away, and the world will not see You, how will You be revealed to us but not to the world?

Jesus's answer is as true for us in the 21st century as it was for them back in the 1st century.  He will be made manifest in our love for one another, and we will know it is true love for Him if we keep His words.  Earlier Jesus had said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (verse 15).  This obedient love of Christ will reveal true Christians to one another.

The Greek word translated "manifest" in verses 21 and 22 is emphanizo, which comes from the root word phanero, which means to show or to make clear.  It is similar to our English word emphasize, derived from the Greek word emphainein, meaning to present or to exhibit.  In context, what Jesus is saying is that our love for Him and our adherence to His words will exhibit or show Christ to others, and exhibit or make clear His love.

So the song we sang in the 70s was right: they will know we are Christians by our love.

Jesus goes on to say that when He goes to the Father, He will send the Spirit who will both remind us of the words that Jesus spoke and will teach us new things.  In my last blog post I spoke at length about the Trinitarian teaching here, as each Person of the Trinity is introduced separately and distinctly, but all working as one.  

One commentary I read said that when Jesus spoke of the Spirit bringing to mind His words, and also teaching them all things, it was a coordination of "conservative" ideas (that is, we recall with reverence the things that Jesus taught us) with "progressive" ideas (that is, we get new knowledge or new revelation from the Spirit which Jesus never spoke about).  I don't necessarily agree with this interpretation.  I think a better explanation is that the Holy Spirit would continue the disciples' training in truth.  Commentator David Guzik writes:

This means that the work of the Spirit would be a work of continuation. His teaching would continue what Jesus already taught. The Spirit does not wipe clear the previous teaching of Jesus and begin again. “The Spirit will not dispense with the teachings of Jesus. The teaching to be recalled is His.” (Morris)

 We should beware of those who preach a different gospel, proclaiming that the Spirit gave them some new revelation.

Jesus moves from the theme of love to that of peace.  A common Jewish greeting of the days was, "Shalom, shalom."  You might hear it said when two people meet on the street, or when someone comes to visit your home, or when two friends leave each other.  It took the place of both "hello" and "goodbye".   The New Cambridge Bible Commentary says this:

In classical Greek, "peace" refers to the cessation of hostilities, but in Israelite writings it means much more because it translates as "shalom," which means plentitude of blessings or completeness of benefaction.  The exhortation "let not your hearts be troubled" both begins this part of the Farewell Adress (14:1) and concludes it (14:27).  But in the conclusion it is joined with Jesus's benefaction of "peace."  The context of these sayings, then, influences how we should read them.  Faced with the emptiness of Jesus's departure (14:28-29), the disciples are given fullness; that is, shalom, or peace.  And faced with "trouble," Jesus bequeaths them security and peace.  Similarly, Jesus calms the terror of His disciples in the upper room when He announces, "Peace be with you" (John 20:29, 21).  Inasmuch as the meaning of "peace" comes from its context, here it would be the successful endurance of crises and trials.

Jesus speaks once more of going to the Father.  He says if the disciples really loved Him, they would be happy for Him.  David Guzik put it this way:  "The disciples were troubled at the news of Jesus’ departure. In faith, they should instead rejoice, for the sake of Jesus, for their own sake, and for the sake of the world. The work of Jesus through the sent Holy Spirit would be greater than His work during the years of His earthly ministry."

One of the reasons that Jesus gives that they should rejoice that He goes to the Father is that "the Father is greater than I."  Without going to deeply into theological arguments, I think a brief explanation is helpful here.  Again from David Guzik:

The Father is greater than the Son in position, especially in regard to the incarnation. Yet the Father is not greater than the Son in essence or being; They are both equally God. It is remarkable that Jesus should even say this. “That it should require to be explicitly affirmed, as here, is strongest evidence that He was Divine.” (Dods)

Jesus makes a sudden transition at the end of this chapter.  He knows His time is short, and so He suggests that they start cleaning up so they can leave the upper room where they had shared a Passover meal, where He had washed their feet, and where Judas had left to betray Him.  This is why He said, "The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me."

Who is this 'ruler'?  At one level, it is Caesar, whose soldiers will take Jesus to His death not many hours hence.  At another level, it is the dark power that stands behind even Caesar, the spiritual force of wickedness named so briefly in the previous chapter, now using Judas as a poor, willing accomplice.  The phrase 'the world' gets its negative force in John's gospel from the fact that the present world, though loved and claimed by the Father, remains under the rule of this dark lord.  Jesus's approaching death and resurrection will inflict a huge wound on this rule, from which it will never recover; but the disciples are to be sent out into the world where opposition is still powerful and deadly.  Their courage and confidence is to be sustained by remembering what Jesus had done.  He did what He did so that 'the world' might know that He loved the Father.  Called to follow Him, we are to act in such a way that 'the world' will know that we love Him.  --NT Wright John for Everyone

Which brings us back to the song our youth group sang.  "They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love; yes they'll know we are Christians by our love."