“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35 – CSB – Read the chapter)

Followers of Jesus have used all kinds of means to identify themselves over the centuries. Symbols, titles, national identities, and so on and so forth. We do this because we want to know who’s saved and who’s not. Now, too often we’ve gotten off track from Jesus’ teachings and used this knowledge for a variety of nefarious purposes, but we’ve also been more noble in our aims. For all the ways we identify ourselves, though, Jesus gave us a marker, a way to tell who are His followers and who aren’t. It’s very simple, He said, just love like He does. I got to participate in bidding a final-for-now farewell to a great lady yesterday. Let me tell you about Peggy and being someone who loves one another.

As I told her family and friends when I did her service yesterday, I loved Peggy. Peggy was 96 and a ball of fire. She was quick with a smile, a joke, and a story. The last time I got to see her before she went home, she had gotten to the point where she couldn’t open her eyes anymore. I walked in and said, “It’s good to see you.” Without missing a beat, she said, “It’s good to hear you.”

She held court from right around the corner from the church. And I do mean she held court. She was the queen of the neighborhood. And from her throne in her living room she knew all the goings on of just about everyone who went past her window. In fact, when she got to the point in the last few weeks that she had to be in a hospital bed, she started out in the bedroom, but soon directed the bed to be moved into the living room so she could be in her spot. When four handsome firefighters from the church went to go enable that move, she was heard to remark something like, “I may be dying, but I’m not dead. I may have them come move me again in a few days.” But she needed to be in her throne room to hold court properly. Some of this was because someone had to keep us in line. More of it, though, was because she loved people, and took an interest in all of them.

I first met Peggy just a shade over seven years ago. My family was in the process of transitioning from where we have been serving for nine years in Virginia to where we are now in Oakboro. Over the long Memorial Day weekend, we brought the boys down for the first time so they could see their new home before we arrived for good. I also had more than 30 boxes of books that needed transporting and were not going to fit on the moving truck.

While we were here, one of the members of the search team said, “I want to take you to meet Peggy Carey.” We told him to lead the way, and soon we were walking out the back door of the church and down the street that ran behind it. I wondered for a bit who we could possibly be going to see this close to the church (our former church was in a much more rural area than the delightful small town we live in now, and getting anywhere but the post office and gas station happened only by vehicle), but I didn’t have to wonder for long.

When we walked in the door, we were all greeted with hearty hellos and hugs and one of the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen. She immediately took an interest in the boys and asked if they wanted to hear a story. She was famous for her stories. And kids can tell when an adult is genuinely interested and when they are just pretending. They’re drawn to the former like moths to a flame. They took to Peggy right away.

When we finally had our first Sunday a few weeks later, Peggy made sure she was there to hear me preach and tell me again how glad she was that I was there. That was the last day she entered the building. It’s a wild thought to think of all the people who could be going to church who don’t when there are some who would give anything to be there but can’t. I can’t imagine the Herculean effort it took for her to get there. But she loved her church, this was an important Sunday in the life of the church (because the new pastor was starting, not because I happened to be that pastor), and she wasn’t going to miss it. From then on, though, I had the privilege of bringing the church to her.

I loved going to see Peggy. She was one of those people who always made you feel better when you left than you had when you arrived. And the real wonder of this was that however you happened to be feeling that day, she was almost certainly feeling worse than you were. She never came out and described all of them, but Peggy had more health issues than you could shake a stick at. She’d tell you she wasn’t doing particularly well, but she said it with a big smile and put some kind of a positive spin on it. She certainly didn’t have to, but she chose joy when she could have chosen a lot of other things. Her practice of daily choose joy made her one of the single most joy-filled individuals I have ever met.

She did this because she had naturally ebullient personality, sure, but what really drove her was her love for Jesus. Peggy loved Jesus. She basically had all her life. She chose to start following Him early and never quit. And this wasn’t some more theoretical love. She put it into practice. She served at her home church for years. She served the community around her by using the gifts God had given her like being a tremendous cook and seamstress for their benefit. She loved her family sacrificially and practically. And she loved people. Oh boy did Peggy love people.

And really, that’s only natural for someone who loves Jesus. When you love someone else, you eventually come to love the things they love. Jesus loved people. Because of that, people who really love Jesus love people too. Peggy loved Jesus, and so Peggy loved people. She loved all of the one anothers around her. It didn’t matter who you were or where you were from, Peggy was going to love you. She didn’t have to agree with your politics or your religion either. She might tell you that and why you were wrong, but she was still going to love you.

Here’s why this matters so much. Jesus said that the way to know who are His followers and who aren’t is to look at whether they are loving one another like He did. When someone loves like Jesus did, that person belongs to Him. This is the only test Jesus gave for knowing who’s who. In fact, it’s the only such test you’ll find in the New Testament. The only way to know whether someone is following Jesus or not is to look at whether they are loving the people around them like Jesus did. If they are, then they are. If they’re not, then no matter what they might say, they’re not. Peggy did and so she was.

After Jesus laid out this test for us, He said something else a few moments later that makes all of this even more significant. He told His disciples, His closest followers, that He was about to go away from them for a little while. But He was going away so that He could prepare a place for them to be able to be with Him where He was going. Don’t miss this. He identified who His followers were (the people who love one another after the pattern of His own love for us), and then said He was going to prepare a place for them so that when they weren’t here anymore, they would be able to be with Him. Peggy’s not here anymore. Peggy was a follower of Jesus. Peggy’s with Jesus. For we who are also followers of Jesus, we’ll get to be with her with Jesus someday too.

That’s a pretty powerful hope. It’s a hope that is a gift compliments of Jesus who first grounded it, and Peggy who grabbed hold of it to be able to share with us. Peggy was a great lady. There’s simply no getting around that. She marveled that anyone wouldn’t follow Jesus, and couldn’t imagine getting by without Him and His church. She’d tell you to get in the same place if she were still around. Like David said, though, she can’t come to us anymore, but we’ll one day get to go where she is. Let’s follow her example, take her advice, and live so that we can indeed.