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The Lord Jesus clearly defines the special kind of love that will identify people as His true followers.
John 13:34, 35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
The old commandment (Leviticus 19:18 ) required that we should love our fellow men, our "neighbour as ourselves". That in itself is a high standard that involves the well-known Golden Rule reiterated by the Lord Jesus.
To love others with the same love we have for ourselves means putting ourselves in the place of another, and doing to him what we would have done to us. It is difficult, but not new. What is new in this commandment of Jesus in reference to the old, is that this kind of love is to distinguish His followers and make them known to all. This love practiced, makes a person open, honest, and just in his dealings with others, and removes from the fellowship of the saints covetousness, jealousy, unkindness, slander, immorality, and hate.
Now do not miss the important distinction that the Lord is making. His followers are to be known for loving one another as He loved them. Loving as Christ loved marks out God's usable people. We need to make a couple of important observations.
How did Jesus love His disciples? The disciples were not ignorant or in the dark about His way of loving. In fact, this requirement of Jesus must have come to some of them as quite a shock. They knew only too well the special, unique love He demonstrated to them. How could He expect them to love one another with His kind of love? But He insists this is the kind of love that will be the badge of God's usable people. They would remember how Jesus loved them so patiently. He loved them with such tenderness. He was never wearied by them even though He had them living in such close proximity with Himself.
It is easy to express the love of the Lord to each other in our great Celebrations, when thousands of us are worshipping the Lord. But the real test comes in the close, intimate company of the Home Cell meeting. The love that Jesus displayed to His own was superior to their faults, and no sacrifice was too great for Him to make on their behalf.
When you see those in your flock group who are patient and tender with people, and are unwearied by their weaknesses and failings, and are absolutely sacrificial in serving people, they are displaying the badge of God's usable people. All the Lord's people are gifted by grace, but only those who love with the love of the Lord are qualified by Him as usable.
Remember, loving others as ourselves is extremely difficult for mere human nature. To love as Jesus loved is impossible, unaided. This kind of love does not come naturally to the flesh. I want to bring it home to you that this identifying badge is supernatural, something produced by the Holy Spirit of God. A man can of himself produce other signs that are simply religious acts. Man is good at putting on a performance, an act.
When we look at the body gifts of Romans 12, it is very clear that they are also in the possession of those who do not know God, and can be used for self-advancement and worldly gain, or worldly acceptance. But no one can counterfeit the supernatural love that is the love of the Lord through them, because it can only be produced by a life lived in the Holy Spirit. It is the love that is part of the "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22-23 ).
This identifying sign results in a new way of thinking. In effect, God's usable people have the mind of Christ. Weymouth's translation of Philippians 2:5 is, "Let this disposition be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."
Those who are usable have put away their old way of thinking, and have put off their old disposition. The Holy Spirit is developing the very nature of Jesus in them. When leaders or workers are being sought, watch out for this sign. For example, when choosing a cell leader, if you look at a man gifted with speaking ability and an extrovert personality alone, you could find yourself with a man who dominates the sharing time, and one who could extrovert everybody out of the home fellowship group.
About 20-30 years ago, the cottage meeting was very much the "in thing". It was held in a home and was run in exactly the same way as a Sunday night gospel meeting. The leader led the singing with gusto. There were selected testimonies, then preaching by the leader, and often, an altar call. Gifted extrovert men did the job well. Usually, the attendance at that type of meeting went up and down like a yo-yo, according to the likeability of the one man band who led it. This kind of house meeting went out years ago. To still be involved in them is to be out of step with what the Holy Spirit is doing right now.
The need today is Home Cells where everyone can participate and freely share and flow in the gifts of the Spirit, in beautiful order. These are successful and body building. The people who are and can be successful in leading such Cells, need to be overflowing with this supernatural love that Jesus insisted upon. They need to love the people as Jesus loved His disciples, delighting in their growth, developing their gifts, releasing them in ministry, helping them overcome their imperfections, stirring them to reproduce themselves and to win souls, leading them to individually sharing in all the activities of the Cell. Look for that love in prospective leaders, who prefer others to themselves, and honour and encourage body ministry (Philippians 2:3 ).
Having considered the application of this sign to the kind of Cell leader required, it is necessary to point to one fact again. The gifted, whether as a specific calling of God (Ephesians 4:11 ) or as the basic body ministry, need to qualify for service by loving as Jesus loved: the sign that cannot be counterfeited.