(John 13:35)35 By this all will know that YOU are my disciples, if YOU have love among yourselves.”
A lot of witnesses like to point to this scripture as evidence of their true Christianity, when all else fails. But when I read it recently, an example came to mind:
I was at a family reunion years back. At the hotel we were staying at, there were 2 other families staying there for their reunions also. So our family "patriarch" told everyone in the family (about 200 of us) to purchase a certain shirt and wear it around, and that way we can tell ourselves apart.
Now, if someone in the family for whatever reason, did not purchase and wear the shirt, does it mean they are no longer part of the family? NO.
If someone from another group coincidentally purchased the same shirt and wore it, where they part of the family? NO.
Wearing the shirt or not did not change the blood line and ties to each other. It simply helped to identify us.
Thats the way Jesus meant John 13:35 (According to my limited understanding). Love SHOULD be the identifying mark, thats the only things "outsiders" would see. A person/people can have full faith in Christ and live by the Bible, but maybe have a hard time showing love. Should they be dismissed? Or others can have many things doctrinally and organizationally wrong, and be nice to each other, and somehow claim superiority? Love should be the first thing many would see, but when they get involved, it should stay that way, not a front.
Ironically, I searched Bing, Yahoo, and Google of different variations of "Most loving people" and "most loving religion". The most common answer? Buddhists. LOL. Not even a Christian religion. There were other religions/groups sprinkled in there, very rarely did JW's pop up, and they were simply described as 'polite'.
So even in JW land, their own reasoning using this scripture doesnt even have any merit.
In any case, I can't see how any group or people can dismiss all scripture and use that one to credit themselves anyway. But it's even crazier when not many agree. "By this, ALL will know...."