At my men’s group this past week we spent the evening talking about love. I suspect the thought of a bunch of rough and tumble guys sitting around the living room talking about love may leave you with a funny mental image. But it certainly was something to see as those men wrestled with the differences between the Greek words for love, agape and phileo. (It should come as no surprise how quickly the jokes came rolling out when we discussed the meaning of eros).
As I sat in that circle of good, strong Christian men, a question struck me. What if we Christians were prohibited from ever mentioning the name of Christ out in the world but were still challenged to share the love of Christ with the world? Could we bring the lost to come to know our Savior and King without ever speaking His name or citing His teachings? Could we pull it off?
This question has hung over me the past few days as I’ve struggled with the implications of the answer. It has made me consider how I go about my daily activities and how I interact with the people around me. When they leave an encounter with me, do they believe there is something fundamentally different about me? Or do they walk away unaffected, thinking nothing at all about our contact because I left no imprint and had no impact?
As we travel through our day to day lives, most of us don’t have the opportunity to verbally share our faith. Hopefully, we can show them that we are followers of Christ in every one of our actions.
** Rob Geyer
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 (NIV)
Read all past issues at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidrupert
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In