The Christian's DNA

Jesus's love for his disciples must have been quite extraordinary. They had developed a great love for him as a genuine friend, one who really cared for them. Now, however, they are gradually realising that within a short time he will no longer remain with them.

Their sadness in realising this must have been really deep. And Jesus must have sensed this. We therefore see Jesus today going out of his way to comfort them and at the same time assure them that he would in any case still remain with them, even if not in a visible way.

"I have a new commandment to give you, that you are to love one another as I have loved you." Mutual love will be the sign by which everyone will know that they are his followers. And the same is true in our regard. Love for one another must remain the distinguishing mark of a genuine Christian, his unique personal DNA, we would say in modern terminology.

Jesus has called this commandment of love "a new commandment". This is not so, of course, in itself, or as a moral principle. But it is new in its motivation: "As I have loved you!" Loving one another because of Jesus and trying to see Jesus in each one of our neighbours, whether they be friends or foes, Christians or non-Christians. We have all been made one by Jesus who has suffered and died for each human being of the past, present and future.

When talking about love, which is such a natural sentiment in itself and which in some form or other exists even among non-Christians, we may run the danger of touching on banalities which would rob Christ's words of their genuine meaning. Hence it is useful to point to three distinguishing marks which are characteristic of the true love Our Lord has in mind when he spoke so insistently about love.

Genuine Christian love strives to be effective rather than merely affective. It needs to be manifested in deeds rather than in words. Never has so much been written about love as in our day and age. What is generally meant, however, is unfortunately anything but the true love that Jesus had in mind when he spoke about it to his disciples.

Today no other word is pronounced so often, whether it be in films, magazines and entertainment, as the word "love". More often that not, however, what is meant is nothing but sex, pleasure and love of self. We are miles and miles away from what Jesus had in mind when he spoke about love. Deeds, not words, are the marks of genuine love.

Secondly, genuine Christian love is not self-seeking, but marked by sacrifice. A person who truly loves is always prepared to go out of his way to help the beloved in every possible way, even when such help means sacrifice and inconvenience: sacrifice of one's time and energy; even if the person needing help may have, in the past, caused one grave sufferings.

The third characteristic of authentic Christian love is giving rather than receiving. Many people, as we learn too well from sad experience, are interested in other persons only for what they can get out of them, and hardly ever for what or who they are.

Such an attitude may be very well called 'business', but certainly not love, at least not the love which Jesus has taught us by word and deed. Seeing Christ in others through the lens of Christ's heart may summarise it all for us.