Jesus said in John 13:34, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” The only way people will know that you are my disciples, declared Jesus, is to demonstrate it by your relationships. Thus I believe there can be no real Christian apologetic without first a community of love and relationships. After we have given all the arguments, the defenses and the evidences, loving one another is the final apologetic.

 Of course, our relationships to one another in a fallen world waiting for the coming of Christ are not going to be idealistic, which is perhaps why Jesus chose an intimate occasion with his disciples to offer this command—during what we now call the Last Supper. The doctor Luke also records this occasion in his Gospel (see Luke 22), and here we gain some interesting insight about relationships that John doesn’t mention as John’s focus is on Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. Luke writes, “Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest” (22:24). Luke does not say anything about the washing of the feet. But putting the two texts together, you begin to see that Jesus is actually telling the disciples that by washing the feet of one another, they were going to demonstrate that they (and we) are living in an imperfect world where we could, to some degree, reflect the perfection of relationship that is part of the triune God.

 We have two children. Our first one is a daughter. Those of you who have daughters, you know that daughters are famous for lecturing their fathers! Now if our daughter were able to lecture within the few seconds of her birth, she would have given us a lecture that would have probably run along these lines: “You should be happy that I am born because before I was born, you had no object to love. But now that I am born, you can love me and therefore you are beginning to learn to love. And therefore (albeit in a peculiarly ironic way), I am your teacher and you are my students.” In hindsight, my wife and I would have to say, “Amen.”

 However, if this scenario reflects one’s perception of God this would be problematic because this God would be a God without an object to love. What do I mean? God is three-in-one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in relationship. God is not unipersonal but rather triune and thus relational. John, above all the other writers of the Bible, tells us that within the oneness of this God, there is a relationship. Take, for instance, John 14:8–11. When the disciple Philip asks Jesus to show the Father to them, Jesus chides Philip and his fellow disciples for not recognizing who he was in spite of being with him for so long. Jesus then goes on to explicitly tell them that those who have seen him have seen God! This claim is amazing, to say the least. Jesus describes his relationship to God in a way that no human being in his right mind has ever come close to saying. He and the Father are in a relationship that is so intimate—one is in the other and vice versa—that to see Jesus is to see God. Indeed, earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus declares, “I and the Father are one” (10:30).

 Notice too what Jesus says after “A new command I give you: Love one another”: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Jesus did not give us religious criteria by which Christians would be known as his disciples. He doesn’t say, “You will be known as my disciples because you worship on Sundays, because you’ll carry your Bibles—the bigger the better.” No. “You will be known as my disciples because of how you relate to one another.” It is a relational criterion rather than religious criteria.

 So when we consider who we are as Christians we must first consider who God is. Thus, we must begin to think about relationality, which is at the heart of reality: three persons, who in some amazing, mysterious way constitute one God. Here in John and Luke Jesus tells us that the relationship with the Godhead will be the standard by which our love for one another would be measured. Not at the mega level, but at the micro level. Not when ten thousand people come and worship together, but when five people meet in our home for a Bible study—a neighborhood Bible study—and our neighbors begin to see that we truly love one another. Because when I wash your feet and you wash my feet, the watching world sees two imperfect people, yes, but who belong to Jesus Christ and reflect his love in relationship. By this all will know that we are his disciples.

 L.T. Jeyachandran is executive director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Singapore.

Morning “Wait on the Lord.” / Psalm 27:14

It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a
Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and
quick-marching are much easier to God’s warriors than standing still. There
are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to
serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself
by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush
forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call
upon God, and spread the case before him; tell him your difficulty, and plead
his promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to
be humble as a child, and wait with simplicity of soul upon the Lord. It is
sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily
willing to be guided by the will of God. But wait in faith. Express your
unstaggering confidence in him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting, is but an
insult to the Lord. Believe that if he keep you tarrying even till midnight,
yet he will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry.
Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction,
but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the
children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the
world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and
with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant
God, saying, “Now, Lord, not my will, but thine be done. I know not what to
do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until thou shalt cleave the
floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if thou keep me many a day, for my
heart is fixed upon thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for thee in the
full conviction that thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and
my strong tower.”

Evening “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.” / Jeremiah 17:14

“I have seen his ways, and will heal him.”

Isaiah 57:18

It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease. Natural disease
may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honour is to be given
to God who giveth virtue unto medicine, and bestoweth power unto the human
frame to cast off disease. As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the
great Physician alone; he claims it as his prerogative, “I kill and I make
alive, I wound and I heal;” and one of the Lord’s choice titles is
Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord that healeth thee. “I will heal thee of thy wounds,”
is a promise which could not come from the lip of man, but only from the mouth
of the eternal God. On this account the psalmist cried unto the Lord, “O Lord,
heal me, for my bones are sore vexed,” and again, “Heal my soul, for I have
sinned against thee.” For this, also, the godly praise the name of the Lord,
saying, “He healeth all our diseases.” He who made man can restore man; he who
was at first the creator of our nature can new create it. What a transcendent
comfort it is that in the person of Jesus “dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily!” My soul, whatever thy disease may be, this great Physician
can heal thee. If he be God, there can be no limit to his power. Come then
with the blind eye of darkened understanding, come with the limping foot of
wasted energy, come with the maimed hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry
temper, or the ague of shivering despondency, come just as thou art, for he
who is God can certainly restore thee of thy plague. None shall restrain the
healing virtue which proceeds from Jesus our Lord. Legions of devils have been
made to own the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has he been
baffled. All his patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the
future, and thou shalt be one among them, my friend, if thou wilt but rest
thyself in him this night.

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.   Jeremiah 17:14

 It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease. Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honor is to be given to God who grants wisdom to doctors and bestows power to enable the human frame to cast off disease. As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the Great Physician alone; He claims it as His prerogative: “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal”;1 and one of the Lord’s choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, “the Lord who heals you.” “I will heal your wounds” is a promise that could not come from the lips of man but only from the mouth of the eternal God.

On this account the psalmist cried unto the Lord, “Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled,”2 and again, “Heal me, for I have sinned against you!”3 For this also the godly praise the name of the Lord, saying, “[He] heals all your diseases.”4 He who made man can restore man; He who was at first the creator of our nature can re-create it. What a transcendent comfort it is that in the person of Jesus “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”5

My soul, whatever your disease may be, this Great Physician can heal you. If He is God, there can be no limit to His power. Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding; come with the limping foot of wasted energy; come with the disabled hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry temper, or the fit of shivering despondency; come just as you are, for He who is God can certainly restore you. No one can restrain the healing power that proceeds from Jesus our Lord. Legions of devils have attempted to overcome the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has He been hindered. All His patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and you may be counted among them, my friend, if you will but rest yourself in Him tonight.

1Deuteronomy 32:39 2Psalm 6:2 3Psalm 41:4 4Psalm 103:3 5Colossians 2:9

Family Reading Plan   Ezekiel 2   Psalm 38