Another infection that rears its ugly head in American Christendom is our tendency to define our faith by what we don’t do rather than what we do. “I don’t drink, I don’t chew, I don’t go out with girls who do.” I know, I know - this is an old saw and we’ve improved over the prudish tendencies of those anti-makeup and anti-style fundies of old… but I contend that we have only decided to bless a different brand of cow.

“They will know we are Christians by our love…” is loosely based on John 13:34-35 where Jesus makes clear that our love for one another will be our distinctive that definitively marks us as one of His. Now, debate all you want about whether this means love amongst fellow brothers in Christ or our love for people in general… not really what I’m going to talk about. The “being known by love” concept seems to have become twisted into “being friendly” - shiny, happy people holding hands, singing Kumbaya.

How did it become more important to be known for what we don’t engage in rather than what we do? How did it become more important to end abortion than it is to end poverty? (Note: Don’t read into that - I’m pro-life.) How did we turn the name of Christ into something signifying prudishness rather than lives lived intentionally loving those He has called us to? We’ve become legalists - if not in actual practice, we’ve done so in rhetoric (which is far worse).

Don’t get me wrong - the Christian community should have obvious differences from the surrounding world - a lighted city on a hill, but as Keller points out, we shouldn’t look so different that we’re unrecognizable as a human being. After all - that’s fake and it’s a bald-faced lie (and this has the side-effect of making confession that much harder). We Christians are still just as frail and still wage a daily war against sin and, honestly, no better than those outside the household of faith. Our distinctive should not to be our “high morals.” Our distinctive should be loving action with an evident striving towards holiness. Our distinctive should include Jesus in our language and actions - the Gospel always on our lips with our love for Christ deeply evident in who we are.

Let’s face it - claiming “high morals” is a cop out. We wish we had them, but it’s a constant war to battle sin in our lives and we lose more often than we’d like to admit. “Clean living” never saved anyone. Going out into the world to preach the Gospel to every living creature has saved millions. It’s interesting that the emphasis of Christ’s ministry was actively loving and declaring peace, not moral striving. Yes, we should be striving to live moral lives - absolutely - but we must stop wearing this as some badge of honor. We suck at it and we’re not fooling anyone.

Yes, this is an echo of my previous blog entry and that message will hopefully be echoed time and time again. How should we be known? By what we do - not what we don’t. People are less interested in your morality than they are in what you’re doing to better the world we live in by sharing the love of Christ with others. Think about it - if you feed a hungry person, or clothe someone in need of clothing, or give water to a thirsty person… the action is hard to condemn - regardless of your morality. So - be moral - yes - but do something that shows Christ to the people you encounter every day. In this - Christ will refine you and through this - you will give witness to the love within you that compells you to be more than you could ever be without Him.