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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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Much has been written about the mark of the beast and the antichrist in the book of Revelation. But what is the mark of a Christian?
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth.”
A witness shares personal experience.
They witnessed His resurrection.
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
A deeply spiritual writer, Ellen White, somwrote: “The badge of Christianity is not an outward sign, not the wearing of a cross or a crown, but it is that which reveals the union of man with God. . . .
[The] world is to be convinced that God has sent His Son as its Redeemer.
No other influence that can surround the human soul has such power as the influence of an unselfish life. The strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian”
(The Ministry of Healing, 470).
“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you . . . that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”
“This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”
“Love comes from God . . . because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world . . . as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”
“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
This is the emphasis Jesus had on caring for the needy. Renowned theologian Francis Schaeffer wrote: “Love—and the unity it attests to—is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father” (The Mark of a Christian, page 153).
Articles of interest:
Extract from Signs of the Times, December 2007.
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