The Bible Study podcast, episode 280 today. The Bible Study podcast continues the study of the

fundamentals of Christianity.

Welcome to the Bible study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen, back from a week of vacation

and ready to jump back into the

fundamentals of Christianity. Last time we talked about love, that we are loved by God. Well,

if you haven't figured out the pattern in this particular study, I think you may figure it out now.

We're going to talk about the flip side of that, is that we are called to love. And let's start

with some of the verses, John 13,

34 through 35, a new commandment I give you, love one another, as I have loved you, so you must love

one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

This is going to be the least difficult of the verses we're going to deal with today.

But notice that even this verse has this thing here at the end that if you love one another,

then everyone will know you are my disciples.

There are going to be some strong language used in these particular verses that we're going to look at because the calling for love for us as Christians in the Bible,

especially the New Testament, is very pointed and very strong.

And this one says basically, if you don't look loving, you don't look Christian.

Did you catch that?

By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Now, I wonder when Jesus said that, if he could picture in his mind

what a church would look like, because I've been in churches, and some churches are very loving,

and some churches are not. And I don't mean that

to be mean. I mean that, to be honest, that I've been in churches where people were not

practicing this. Not only is it a command from God, but it is also part of the fundamental

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