Love One Another

This is Jesus at the Last Supper, speaking to His disciples just hours before the cross. And in that moment, He didn’t hand them a strategy, a mission plan, or a system to organize. He gave them a mark. Something so visible that people outside the faith could recognize it without anybody having to explain it.

John Mark Comer talks a lot about how Jesus didn’t simply invite people to believe certain things about Him. He invited them into a whole new way of being human. The thing that was supposed to set them apart wasn’t their doctrine, their worship style, their politics, or even how busy they were doing ministry. It was love. Not some sentimental kind of love, but the kind of sacrificial, patient, others-centered love that Jesus Himself was about to demonstrate on the cross.

Dallas Willard would probably remind us that this kind of love isn’t something we can just grit our teeth and produce. It’s what naturally begins to happen when we’re being formed by Jesus. When we spend time with Him, become more like Him, and start doing the things He did, love starts showing up. It starts showing up in conversations, in relationships, in how we treat people, and especially in how we treat people that don’t have much to offer us in return.

N.T. Wright often describes the Church as a community that’s meant to give the world a glimpse of God’s new creation. Jesus wasn’t saying people would know His followers because they had the best arguments or the most impressive programs. He was saying they’d know because they saw a different kind of community. A people that genuinely cared for one another in a way that just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense apart from God.

For us, this has become one of the foundations of outreach. We don’t just wanna bring services to people. We wanna bring people to people. We wanna sit at the table, learn names, hear stories, carry burdens, and walk alongside one another. We don’t just wanna hand somebody a meal, a pair of socks, a shower, or a hygiene kit and move on. We wanna create space for relationship.

Truthfully, I think that’s where a lot of real transformation begins. Most people living on the street don’t just suffer from a lack of resources. They suffer from a lack of connection. Somewhere along the line relationships got broken—with God, with themselves, with family, with community. What we’ve come to call relational poverty.

So when we show up week after week, whether it’s at the showers, in the park, at an encampment, or around a table, we’re trying to do more than meet an immediate need. We’re trying to love people well. We’re trying to be present. We’re trying to create the kind of community Jesus talked about.

Because at the end of the day, long before somebody understands our theology, our mission statement, or our programs, we hope they experience love. Love is still the clearest evidence that Jesus is present. And maybe in a world that’s becoming more divided, more isolated, and more disconnected, loving one another is still one of the most powerful forms of outreach we have.