How do you know what an athlete looks like? Would you agree that a football player looks different than a basketball player? What about a soccer player and a baseball player? Each sport requires different strengths for the athlete to excel. Depending on your position, other strengths are needed and even desired by the athlete. I remember playing basketball in college; I emphasized the ability to get off the floor quicker to maximize my chances of blocking a shot or getting a rebound. The point guard did not do the same. Instead, he focused on his quickness to get around a defender.
What does all this mean? It means that people know an athlete by the traits that they develop in their training.
What about a follower of Christ? What trait or traits identify a follower of Christ to others?
Is it church attendance? NO.
Is it the ability to quote scripture? NO.
Is it their tithes and offering? NO.
What is it?
It is the love that they show.
The love that a follower of Christ offers looks different than ordinary human love. The love that the follower of Christ shows is a love that has no agenda. It is a love that is not self-serving. It is simply the love of Christ.
This week is considered Holy Week when followers of Christ remember his last time walking on earth. Each day this week, I have read scripture highlighting different things from Christ’s last week. Today, my reading focused on what Christ told his disciples before Judas’ betrayal. Jesus told his disciples that people would know they were his followers by how they loved others (John 13:21-35.)
So, to the follower of Christ, I pray this Easter season and for the rest of your life that you will focus more on loving others. When Christ described love, he described it as a never-ending love emphasizing caring for others.
Remember, people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.
You may be known for many things; let one of those be how you loved people for the glory of God.
Someone has said, “you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”
Happy Easter
Dr. Draper Rogers is Pastor of Young Families at Gardendale First Baptist Church and a contributor to The North Jefferson Herald.
