"Jesus said that the foremost sign of discipleship would be our love for one another. 'A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another: (John 13:34-35). His teaching is unequivocal here. we would be known as his followers not because we are chaste, celibate, honest, sober, or respectable; not because we are church-going, Bible-toting, or Psalm-singing: We would be recognized as disciples primarily by our deep and delicate respect for one another, our cordial love impregnated with reverence for the sacred dimension of the human personality. However, in an arrogant gesture of one-upmanship, many preachers today have decided that Jesus' standard for discipleship is inadequate for modern times. The new criterion is orthodoxy of doctrine coupled with the way we interpret the Bible. 'Right thinking' is the new norm for determining what a Christian is worth. In these parlous times we do not shrink from splitting up fellowship, local churches, and even denominations over the form of worship, the songs we sing, or the method of interpreting a Bible passage."
-- Brennan Manning
The Signature of Jesus
No comments:
Post a Comment