I've been entrusted with the microphone at Koinonia for July 18th. As part of our message series on Joel's book, Become a Better You, I'll be giving a brief message on Chapter 15, "Being Nice to People," before turning things over to the small group leaders to discuss. So, between now and then, I'm going to just throw some of my notes on the blog.

One obvious starting point for what I expect to talk about is from the book of John (Message version) ...

John 13:34-35

^34-35 "Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples--when they see the love you have for each other."

The first part of this short passage is vaguely familiar since it resonates with Mark 12:29-31, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The last part of the line from John, I suspect, is less familiar.

Put another way, the only way people will recognize us as a disciple of Christ will be by the way we show love to others. That's something you can't fake with insincerity. It's something we will fail to show if you think any good deeds you do need to be a full public display. It is something we will struggle with. The following lines from John continue with Peter telling Jesus that he would lay down his life for Jesus. Jesus goes on to tell him that he will, in fact, deny Christ.

I think more than just being prophetic, what Jesus is really saying here is that the type of love we're called to bring into the world will not happen as easily as we may think. We can expect to struggle with this commandment. We can expect to practice it very clumsily. But it's all part of the path we're on.

More later on this series. I'm guessing that I'll end up having about 90-minutes worth of material that I'll need to whittle down to about 5 minutes for the sake of having an audience sit still for my part of the show. As always, your own response, reaction, and insights are more than welcome as I think up ways to condense so much material.