I must admit that The God Who Is There by Francis Schaeffer is a surprising book.  It’s not I was unaware of Schaeffer’s reputation as a great apologist (a description he would be uncomfortable with; he thought of himself as an evangelist first), it’s just that the first half of the book does not prepare you for what’s to come in the second half.  I plan on writing a review of the book in the next week that will elaborate on this idea, but until then, I wanted to cite this paragraph where Schaeffer introduces a phrase that will stick with me for the rest of my life: the “final apologetic”.

The world has a right to look upon us and make a judgment.  We are told by Jesus that as we love one another the world will judge, not only whether we are his disciples, but whether the Father sent the Son.  The final apologetic, along with the rational, logical presentation, is what the world sees in the individual Christian and in our corporate relationships together.  The command that we should love one another surely means something much richer than merely organizational relationship.  Not that we should minimize proper organizational relationship. But one may look at those bound together in an organized group called a church and see nothing of a substantial healing of the division between people in the present life.

It is all too easy to read a passage like this and think of how it applies to that favorite of Reformed straw-men: the one who reads theology all day, can quote Scripture at length, and can wax poetic on the finer points of systematic theology, yet shows little of the fruits of the Spirit, especially love.  But don’t do that.  Instead take a look at yourself.  Have you become so wrapped up in the academic side of learning and defending the faith that you have neglected Christ’s command that we love one another?

I believe Schaeffer is spot on here: the most powerful testimony we can have to a watching world is that we love one another, and put on display in our own lives and relationships the outworking of the healing that Christ made possible in our relationship with the Father.