When Jesus told his followers to go and make disciples, what exactly did he have in mind? As far as I know, Jesus only gave one defining template. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35). Were they loving each other or not? It would be easy to tell. Who is serving others? Who is laying down their life for another? Who is turning the other cheek? Who is feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, visiting orphans and widows, and praying for their enemies? Christ commissioned his disciples to love one another and go help others love one another. This they could do best by sharing wherever they went the good news of God’s reconciling love toward everyone through Jesus Christ and modeling that love in deed and word. Simple.
Tragically, history tells us that, from the earliest days of Christianity, many claiming to be followers of Jesus decided loving one another was an unsatisfactory measurement of who should be considered a fellow disciple. In a very short time, agreeing with “us” became much more important than simply loving us and others. The sorting out questions turned the focus to discovering who thinks like we think and cooperates with our ways of doing things rather than assessing if love was present.
Now, as everybody knows today, “loving one another” is way down on a long list of other “true disciple” identifiers such as saying specific words in a certain way, showing up regularly at church services, resorting to “acceptable” Bible interpretations as ones basis of belief, voting Republican or maybe conservative Democrat, supporting pro-family values causes, listening to Christian radio, and being disdainful of everyone who sins differently than “we” do. Loving one another may be all Jesus looks for in a disciple, but I can assure you it takes a great deal more to be recognized as a member in good standing on most church membership lists today.
Whether we will admit it or not, many churches have long ago abandoned making converts to loveful living and are, instead, devoting their time and money to getting people to conform to rules and habits of doing things religious the way they like them done.
