They will know by your love
Jesus' new commandment
On his last night, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment and stakes the whole credibility of their witness on it: love one another, as I have loved you. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples — if you have love for one another. Not by their doctrine, their success, or their strategy, but by their love for each other, the watching world would know whose they were.
It is the capstone of shepherding. The way leaders and their people treat one another is itself the message. A community marked by genuine love preaches what no program can; a community marked by rivalry, coldness, or contempt discredits whatever it claims. For a leader this means the relationships you cultivate are not separate from the mission — they are the mission's proof. People will know what you are really about far less by what you say than by how those in your care actually love one another.
“If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.”
— John, on love made complete — 1 John 4:12 (WEB)
The way a community loves one another is itself the message. Relationships are not separate from the mission; they are its proof to a watching world.
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus tied his disciples’ credibility to their love for each other. A leader formed here treats the quality of relationships as central to the mission, not incidental. The inner work is building love, not just output, among his people.
Cultivate genuine love among your people as part of the mission, not a distraction from it. Confront rivalry, coldness, and contempt as threats to the witness. Let how your community treats one another be its most persuasive message.
Leaders pursue results and treat relationships as secondary, not seeing that the love among their people is the actual proof. The blind spot is a community whose internal coldness discredits its claims.
Assess the love among your people honestly. This week, take one step to heal a cold or rivalrous relationship on your team.
People will know what you are really about less by what you say than by how those in your care treat one another. Love is the proof — or its absence the disproof — of everything you claim.
Would the love among your people convince a watching world, or quietly discredit everything you stand for?