Historically, the primary characteristic of Jesus-followers has been called “the mark of the Christian.” It should come as no surprise that this trait is “love”. The first and greatest commandment? Love God. The second? Love others. The greatest of all the gifts God has given man? Love. Love is what defines us. Yet to many, this is just good theology and it has little bearing on how we live out our daily lives. The “mark” has become difficult to see, as if it’s been rubbed away by decades of intellectualism and humanism. That needs to change.

Many in today’s cultural climate misunderstand the nature of God’s love. When hardships arise – and I’m talking about real hardship, like the death of a loved one or being diagnosed with an incurable disease – it can be easy to think that God doesn’t love us or he would do something about our condition. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many hardships are a natural part of living in a fallen world, but some come from , or are at least permitted, by God. Take Job for example. God was clearly with Job, delighted over him in fact, when Satan came with a proposal to bring calamity upon Job’s family. God permitted this not because God has a mean streak but because God loved Job.

How is it that permitting a satanic attack can be evidence of God’s love? Because God’s love didn’t change. Just as God was with Job during the time of blessing, so God was with Job during his time of suffering. What is more, such times of hardship serve to strengthen or love for God and make us a people that can be readily identified as people of God. Paul tells us in Romans 5.2-5:

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

It is time we stopped thinking that God blesses us only and in a “health and wealth gospel” and to start understanding the harder truths of Love and Scripture. Author Jerry Bridges had this to say about the love of God:

God’s unfailing love for us is an objective fact affirmed over and over in the Scriptures. It is true whether we believe it or not. Our doubts do not destroy God’s love, nor does our faith create it. It originates in the very nature of God, who is love, and it flows to us through our union with His beloved Son.

The take-away here is that God’s love for us is no different in times of blessing or hardship, rejoicing or correction, in rest or in teachable moments and our love for God and others should be no different. When friends forsake or abandon us, when loved ones betray us, when death or disease inflict their pain and power, our love for God and others is to remain steadfast. In doing so we visibly bear love’s mark, the Mark of the Christian.