BE UNITED IN CHRIST
THE IDENTIFYING MARK OF A BELIEVER
Did you know that the identifying mark of
believers in Jesus Christ should be the mutual,
sacrificial love He modeled and commanded?
Before His betrayal and arrest, Jesus spent a
sober evening with His disciples. In those few
hours, He introduced a new covenant (Luke 22:20)
along with a new commandment (John 13:34–
35). Consider the connection. Jesus delivered a
new commandment for His new covenant family.
What was it? “A new commandment I give to
you, that you love one another; as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. By this all
will know that you are My disciples, if you have
love for one another” (NKJV).
Jesus repeats the same commandment twice
more in John 15. This repetition underscores His
urgency. Just hours before His sacrificial death
for us, our Lord urges us to love one another. This
sacrificial, mutual love is supposed to be visible
among all who are truly believers in Christ.
You see, only those who believe in Christ can
love each other this way.
In fact, in John 17:21, Jesus connects the unity of
His followers to the gospel: “I pray that they will
all be one, just as You and I are one—as You are in
Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in Us
so that the world will believe You sent Me” (NLT).
Two things to know as you try to live out the lovebased
unity Jesus prayed for:
First, if you’re in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit
in you, enabling you to obey God’s commands.
Jesus didn’t leave His disciples helpless after His
ascension, but He sent them the Holy Spirit to
be their Helper (John 16:7). And He gives us the
same Spirit to be our helper as well.
Second, sanctification, growing to be more like
Jesus, is a process. Everyone who truly believes
the gospel message is engaged in a similar
process. We learn more about the life Jesus calls
us to, and then we apply that learning to our lives.
So how can we begin to model the type of mutual,
sacrificial love that Christ desires for us to model?
The First Step: Learn
The first step in pursuing and honoring Christ’s
passion for unity is to learn what the Bible
really says about the unity of believers. The Holy
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