35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.”
Jesus says that the thing that will be a witness to others that we are His disciples is our love for each other. Love and unselfish concern for others, now that’s a tall order especially today when we live in a society where it’s me first and the rest will sort themselves out an attitude that we also find in the house of God.
Jesus talks about having a genuine love for each other not just for those who come to your church or denomination, or those who come from your tribe or affiliated to your political party (As we see in Kenya today days to our general election) The apostle Paul broke this down further for us when he wrote;
Philippians 2:3 (AMP)
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit [through factional motives, or strife], but with [an attitude of] humility [being neither arrogant nor self-righteous], regard others as more important than yourselves.
Let me make this personal, “As a disciple of Jesus I do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. Everything I do is from an attitude of humility being neither arrogant nor self-righteous. I regard others as more important that myself!” Question is, how true is that statement for you and I today?
Tribalism is a tool that the enemy has been using for a long time to bring about division in our nation and this becomes so evident every time we get to an election season like we are in right now. Even believers jump on the band wagon and we throw insults towards those of another tribe or those affiliated to another political outfit. We now do everything from selfish and empty conceit having thrown humility out of the window. We regard ourselves and those in our camp as more important than others and if we do not have our way then we are ready to resort to violence! Ohh Kenyans, how far we have fallen!
The truth is I cannot achieve love on my own We need to go back to our first love for Christ and stay connected to the vine then we can show the nation by example how different we are because we are connected to the vine!
The world is watching and though they sometimes ignore the message we carry, how we treat each other can either draw them closer to God because they also are looking for love but in all the wrong places or it may push them even further away.
Let us Love one another!
WORD FOR TODAY: A Tribe Called Love – Genuine love
