They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love. Or will they?

Last night I heard Simple Truth, a contemporary Christian band, play in the park downtown. I enjoy their music, but one of the songs they played always disturbs me a bit: "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love." It's a nice song alright, but will they? Will they know we are Christians by our love? I think not.

It seems to me that Christians, for the most part, aren't any more loving than anybody else. George Barna, director of the Barna Group, which conducts research to track Christian attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, says, "If Jesus Christ came to this planet as a model of how we ought to live, then our goal should be to act like Jesus. Sadly, few people consistently demonstrate the love, obedience and priorities of Jesus."

They won't know us by our love, will they? What can we do to make our love distinguish us from non-Christians? What can each of us personally do? What can we do to help our fellow Christians who also struggle with this?

Jesus the socialist

In a recent blog post, a friend wrote, "I learned of Christian liberalism/socialism and that according to some, Jesus was the first communist. I could have been very closed minded about these topics because I don't agree with either."

Here's my response to her:

Communism and socialism have been given a bad reputation by governments that claimed to be communist or socialist but were neither.

I don't know that Jesus was the first Communist/Socialist; likely there were others before him. But I don't see how one can deny that Jesus tended toward socialist.

Acts 2:44-45 says "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need."

In Acts 4, we find "The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common." (Verse 32) and "For neither was there among them any who lacked, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles feet, and distribution was made to each, according as anyone had need." (Verses 34-35)

Where did the early Christians get the idea to live that way? From Jesus himself, of course: "to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required." (Luke 12:48) "Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor." (Luke 18:22) There's more, and I'm sure you can think of a few similar verses yourself.

Compare the words of Jesus and the lives of the early Christians with these words from Karl Marx: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

Doesn't that sound a lot like the lives of the early Christians? Doesn't that sound a lot like "to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required" or "Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor"?

It sure does to me. And to those who say "The poor you will always have with you", I give you this explanation of why we will always have with us: because of our failure to follow the words of God. In Deuteronomy 15, God says: "However there shall be no poor with you; if only you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you this day..... If there be with you a poor man, one of your brothers, within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; but you shall surely open your hand to him." If only we observe God's commandment, which by and large, we do not. It is because of our failure to follow God's commandment to open our hands to our brothers that we will always have the poor with us.