The Sign of the Times

​When it comes to reading the 'signs of the times' most people get the wrong end of the stick. The common method to determine when Bible prophecies will be fulfilled is for Christians to look for signs in the world around them, that is, in natural disasters, climate changes, etc. Surprisingly, Jesus said the opposite! He stated that people should find in Christians the sign of his return. The 'sign of the times' is given by Jesus in John 13:34:
 
“A new commandment I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”.
 
In his time, Jesus was not the only Rabbi who attracted devoted disciples. We know John the Baptist had his own followers. Yet the distinctive badge that Jesus wanted his followers to be known by was  located in the quality of their love for one another. It was not in persuasive confessions of the truth, popularity or attractive methods that would convince the world about Jesus. It was the nature of Christian love that would be Christ's signature on earth. In these well-known and simple words Jesus tells us that when the same love he very concretely demonstrated toward his small group of 12 disciples is duplicated amongst all his followers the world will sit up and listen. It is by loving one another the way Jesus loved us that the world is to receive its final manifestation of the truth of Jesus Christ.
 
These words of Jesus are given richer colour and broader application in The Lord's Prayer in chapter 17 of the same Gospel. Here we overhear Jesus praying to his Father. The prayer concludes when Jesus asks the Father to unite all his followers 'so that the world may know and believe that You sent me' (vs 21, 23). We see here that Christ saw the unity of all his followers functioning as a great sign to the world, providing a true spectacle that would persuade them that Christ was truly the One sent by God.  
 
Of course you cannot love abstractly or theologically. Jesus loved us practically and concretely. He died on a Roman cross, on hill called Golgotha, as a public spectacle on a highway into Jerusalem. As his followers we are mandated to demonstrate similar cross-shaped and public sacrificial love, love that is demonstrated at a particular time and in a particular place. Wherever your church may be, there you can begin to become this sign of Christ to your community. Regardless of church labels, Jesus' words send all Christians on a mission: to visibly demonstrate to our world who Jesus Christ is through the way we love one another.