John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (NASB)

Back in 2004, the movie “Hidalgo” came out. One of the major antagonists in the movie was a character named Lady Davenport. Lady Davenport was a liar, a cheat, a crook, and will pretty much would do anything to get her way. However, she is referred to as “the Christian Lady” by one of the main characters.

In real life, people carrying crosses (or burning them) often purport themselves as “Christian.” Yet, their actions are not in line with such a claim. Hey, they may go to church, they may pay their tithes, they may be the movers and the shakers in the church, they may even preach from the pulpit, but if the love of Christ is not in them, something is amiss.

According to “Global Christianity,” December 2011, the nations with the largest number of people who identify themselves as Christian (rounded to the nearest 10,000) are: (1) the United States with 246,000,000: (2) Brazil with 175,770,000; (3) Mexico with 107,780,000; (4) Russia with 105,220,000. No other nation has over 100 million.

Shouldn’t these nations be filled with the most Christ-like love both within each nation and toward each other? Of course, we can always blame “the other guy” and say that non-Christians or a handful of hypocrites are to blame for the hate, crime, rage, and division.

My Bible says that follows of Christ should love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for those that despitefully use us or persecute us (See Mt. 5:43-47). Jesus said that a tree can be identified by its fruit (Mt 12:33). As far as I know, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:25-26).

Yikes! It looks like there is a big gap in rhetoric and reality here. Most Christian denominations that I know, say that the Bible, in particular the teachings of Christ, is their final authority. If we are not known by our love for one another, then we need to take a good hard look at ourselves. If our religion is teaching something else, it may be a lot of things, but it would not seem to be “Christian.”