How Do They Know?

Agape (Ah-gah-pay) love is more a decision than a feeling. It’s more a commitment than a relationship. It is love without condition -- like the love of a parent for a child. John 3:16, of course, illustrates the ultimate expression of God's agape love for a humanity shaking its collective fist in His face: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  Romans 5:8 also comes to mind: “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The Holy Spirit is not impressed by our religious activities or our spiritual gifts. That’s why He guided St. Paul to write: "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. 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. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned [as a martyr], but do not have love, it profits me nothing." Without agape love, the most enthusiastic religious activities and the most ostentatious spiritual gifts are like the irritating gonging of a bell or a cacophonous clanging of a cymbal. No wonder the Lord Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) Agape love for one another. A self-sacrificing love. A ‘lay-down-my-life-for-you’ kind of love. How to others know I am a disciple of Jesus? How do they know you are a disciple?