January 3

“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:35)

How are you going to tell whether you are a Christian or not? Not by the fact that you are you are a Catholic or a Protestant, not that you subscribe to some creed that man has drawn up. We must have something better than that. What did Christ say? “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

When I was first converted, I used to wish that every Christian would wear a badge, because I would like to know them; my heart went out toward the household of faith.

But I got over that. Every hypocrite would have a badge inside of thirty days, if Christianity should become popular. No badge outside; but God gives us a badge in the heart. The man that hasn’t any love in his creed may let it go to the winds; I don’t want it. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Love is the fruit of the Spirit. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”