The Uniform of Love - Matthew 7:15

You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? - Matthew 7:15

    Uniforms - they’re all around us. From the service man or woman protecting our freedoms to police officers protecting our lives and our homes, uniforms mark the man and woman in an easily recognizable way. There’s no doubt in our minds when we recognize a uniform as to what we can reasonably expect from the person wearing it.
    As Christians we too wear a uniform of sorts and by it we should be identified just as easily as is the men and women wearing worldly uniforms. We too represent something when people recognize us in our uniforms. Even the most biblically illiterate person should be reasonably able to expect us to “act like Christians” or people of God.
    While Matthew’s indication is a negative aimed at false prophets the  positive inverse is true for the Christian who walks in Christ’s way. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God . . . Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. - 1 John 4:7, 11.
    Love truly is a recognizable “uniform” for a Christian. By the love we show for one another and those who remain unredeemed we fulfill the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:16 - Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.  But even the unredeemed, the unsaved, those of the world? Christ admonishes us further in Matthew 5:43-45 - “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
    Yes, our love for others is a uniform of sorts. It calls us out to holiness; it calls us out to be like Christ; it sets us apart from the world and that is what we as Christians are called to do - be in the world but not be of it.
    May we always remember to wear our uniform in humility and allow our light to shine as that city on a hill so that we may glorify our heavenly Father.