Back in my youth group days, Sunday nights were regularly spent in gatherings known as “Singspiration.”  One of the popular songs that we sang around the guitar was the familiar, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

I believe you can take that song line and have a robust discussion around a number of topics that could fill-in the blank: “They’ll know we are Christians by our ________.”  To stimulate our thinking, let me suggest a BIG topic in our post-Christian times: passion and compassion.  Post-Christian minded people often pay attention to people who have zeal for something/someone and who likewise show empathy and charity towards those who are the recipients of misfortune and pain.

Post-Christian thinkers want to see vibrancy in a Christian’s walk with God.  They want to see the fruit of spiritual transformation–a deeper faith and trust in God, a hunger for the Scriptures, a passionate participation in worship, a dependent, childlike humility, and a degree of the Holy Spirit’s fullness visibly in the fruit of the Spirit.  All of these elements of deeper spiritual life show a sense of passion and fervor for the things of God.

This passion and zeal for God shows itself most pointedly in the compassion that is shown for others.  Post-Christian thinking people want to see genuine, nourishing relationships in a believer’s own family, church family, and with others.  They want to see the Faith demonstrated in ways that reveal the compassion of Christ for those in the community, especially those who are grieving, suffering, troubled, or displaced.  In effect, post-Christian thinking people are saying at times: “You profess that you’re a Christian by what you say at church on Sundays.  Ok, how about showing me what your faith looks like during the week in your family, your relationships, your attitudes, your neighborhood, your schedule, your “inconvenient unexpectancies,” and in the way you engage people who are different from you in skin color, economics, education, and social customs.”

In effect, the call to Christians in these post-Christian times is to go DEEPER, CLOSER, and WIDER.  We must go deeper into our obedience, walk and faith with God, understanding in greater ways what union with Jesus Christ is all about as we pray for the Holy Spirit’s infilling and fullness in greater measures.

We must draw closer to those in our immediate family and love them unconditionally, showing others the biblical pattern for a healthy and happy home.  We must draw closer to others in the Body of Christ and show agape love in real and tangible ways.

We must reach wider into our neighborhoods and community with the compassionate love of Christ, seeking to spread good will, peace and nurture to those that come into our path.  For many people, this kind of passion and compassion will be the only Jesus that they will ever see.

In his book, Whole Life Transformation, Keith Meyer states: “Right doctrine and belief are only as good as they issue forth in transformed lives” (p.55).  Post-Christian thinking people are looking for that kind of transformation, especially as we show spiritual passion towards God and compassion for others.