Such unity and love, as Francis Schaeffer once wrote, is the “mark of the Christian.” Not just a feeling of love or an acknowledgment of love, rather a demonstration of love. And it is the litmus test Jesus gave to the world as to whether we really reflect Him.
As Schaeffer wrote:
Jesus is giving a right to the world. Upon His authority He gives the world the right to judge whether you and I are born-again Christians on the basis of our observable love toward all Christians.
That’s pretty frightening. Jesus turns to the world and says, “I’ve something to say to you. On the basis of my authority, I give you a right: you may judge whether or not an individual is a Christian on the basis of the love he shows to all Christians.”
Schaeffer then added that the world cares little for doctrine. That the one thing that will arrest the attention of a world that has disavowed the very idea of truth is, “The love that true Christians show for each other and not just for their own party.”
By party, Schaeffer meant whatever various segment of the Christian faith you might be a part of, such as Baptist or Presbyterian. And those divides can run deep. But that is not where Christian love and unity is being most breached today. It is the observable unity and love between Christians despite political divides.
During this moment in history, we can either be a shining light to the world – another example of how the Christian faith creates radical community even in the midst of honest disagreement—or we can allow our faith to be shoved aside in the name of politics and, as a result, have unloving attitudes and words cause a stench that the world can smell and destroy our witness before a watching world.
So why is it so bad right now? What’s going on with us? Why are so many Christians behaving so badly, in ways that are no better than those who are not Christians or even worse?
Two reasons come to mind.
One is that we don’t know how to disagree with someone agreeably. We only know to give in to anger, to demonize, to belittle, to demean, to cancel. We don’t even try to empathize with others, enter into understanding or put love ahead of opinions. We can barely even treat them with basic human dignity.
In other words, we only know one way to enter into a disagreement: go to war.
As Robert Morris has written, to choose war is to set someone else apart as the enemy, often through a process of disrespect and dehumanization. And we like war! Being at war and having enemies can be exhilarating. It brings a sense of moral clarity and life purpose. The neat trick is that when you so demonize your opponents, particularly when they are a fellow Christians, you don’t have to consider them as Christians at all. You simply relegate them to a sub-Christian level and absolve yourself of all responsibility for civility, much less charity.
