Standing Out

Yesterday I started reading "The Life You've Always Wanted" by John Ortberg. There was one paragraph that jumped off the page and slapped me in the face. That is what I want to talk about today.

Here is where the thought begins. The Bible tells us that we are to be separate from the world (in the world but not of the world).

In John 13:35 Jesus commands us to love one another. Love in a radical, real way. Love in a big, bold way. Love in a way that is so pure that when other people see us they automatically know that we are Christians. By having a love like this, we would be separated from the world all around us regardless of our environment. We would be separate like a rainbow in a cloudy sky.

Yet most of the time we fail at loving like this. Because of this failure to be separated by love, we instead try to separate ourselves by making boundries. We make rules like no dancing, no rock music, no movies, no...

Now, I'm not saying that having rules and boundries is bad, because we all need fences in our lives. The problem is that many times as we build these boundries around our lives we forget to have that big, bold love that Jesus commands for us. Additionally many times these fences serve not only to keep us in, but to also keep others out. Fences are no substitute for big, bold love. We must be known by our love. People should know by looking at us that we follow Christ. But this distinction should come by our great love for others.

Here is my last thought. If people cannot recognize that you are a Christian by your great love, maybe it is better that they don't know that you are a Christian at all.