Knowing Love

1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 

When hearing this verse, I can’t help but think about the 1960s song “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love.” If you don’t know it, I strongly encourage you to look it up, but chances are that you’ve heard it at some point. It has four verses, at least four of which I’m aware, that discuss unity in the Spirit, walking together, working together, and a celebration of the Holy Trinity. All the verses share a common refrain: And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love; yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love. 

When I think about this hymn, my mind immediately goes to a children’s choir I led at a Presbyterian church in Columbia, South Carolina. One of the intentional efforts I make with kids is teaching them how to use a hymnal and read verses of a hymn. In case you’ve never considered it, it’s a bit of a particular skill. In order to acquaint them with this skill as well as to introduce the kids to the rich body of song we have in the church, I usually make looking up and singing hymns the first activity before we get into songs we’re learning to sing in worship. 

Well, I’m not the world’s best pianist, and I didn’t have a separate pianist playing for me in this particular church. Therefore, I also had to choose wisely what I had them sing. One day, I thought I might show them this hymn. It has a fun, minor-key melody, it’s pretty repetitive so it’s easy to learn, and the range is pretty limited, so it makes for a great children’s song. Plus, it’s easy to play! The kids took to it immediately. They really, genuinely enjoyed singing it. I had planned to sing the first two verses, but when we got to the end of the second verse, a tiny voice said, “Mr. Dwight, could we please sing the other verses?” Of course so. It wouldn’t take that long, after all. Well, a couple of weeks later, we were singing through another hymn as part of our opening activities, and when we finished, moving on to the next activity, I heard a different tiny voice say, “Mr. Dwight, could we please sing number 300?” Like the Grinch, I felt my heart grow three sizes. “Sure,” I replied, “we’ll sing the first verse.” In chorus, the kids all pleaded, “All the verses!” Well, friends, who am I to stop them? 

As a music director, I take very seriously the words I am quite literally putting into others’ mouths. While I’m sure some folks don’t think about it much, I weigh heavily the meaning and the quality of what we are singing. So, how could I possibly stop these children of God from proclaiming the message we find in 1 John? We are one in the Spirit. We will walk and work with each other. We give thanks for the trinity, and, perhaps most importantly, others will know us as Christians not by our rightness or our piety or our buildings or our bumper stickers or even sticking to our lesson plans, but by the love we show and the love we share. I don’t remember what the rest of the lesson was supposed to be with my children’s choir that day, but I do remember us all learning about God’s love. 

Let us pray. 

God, help us to feel your love and to share it with all we meet. May we never be so preoccupied with what we need to accomplish that we miss an opportunity to proclaim and show your love. In Christ’s name, amen. 

This devotion was written and read by Dwight Dockery.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life. 

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org. 

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.