Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God . . . (Rom. 1:1)

On a recent trip to Michigan to visit my brother, my family and I wanted to find one of the excellent roadside produce stands the area is known for. We had almost given up on finding one when a trip to a nearby state park took us by an Amish farm with a roadside stand. The stand was set so far back from the road that we weren’t sure it really was one, so after exploring the state park, we decided to see if we could find it again.

We did, and what a fun experience it was. Items were placed on shelves and tables and inside a cooler that wasn’t turned on (no electricity!), with price tags attached or on signs in front of the items. A bucket to collect payment sat on one of the tables. No one manned the stand—it was completely on the honor system. The stand was just a few feet from the house, and while we shopped, we could hear the women inside chattering away in a language we couldn’t understand, most likely preparing supper based on the time of day.

The roadside stand contained all sorts of homemade items—jams, jellies, relishes, maple syrup, candies, and crocheted dolls without faces. After purchasing our items and leaving cash in the jar, we left and met a horse-drawn Amish buggy making its way home—quite possibly the home we had just left.

The Amish are an enigma to most of the modern world. They exist in the world but do not participate in many of its modern conveniences like the use of electricity, technology, and cars. If they do use them, it’s on a very limited basis with a number of rules guiding their usage. While these things make life easier in many ways, one of the reasons the Amish reject them is because they fear becoming more dependent on manmade things than on God. They are set apart by their lack of modern conveniences, their rules, and their dress code. They have stayed locked into a previous time, not moving into the modern era.

While the Amish might be an extreme example, God does call us to be set apart, or to be holy as he is holy (1 Peter 1:15–16). So how can we do this? How can we be set apart in a way that people recognize us as Christians, just as we recognize the Amish by their mode of transportation or their manner of dress?

Jesus said it this way: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Love is the first fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23), and each of the fruits builds on the other. As we produce more fruit (“love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”), the world around us will begin to recognize us as Christ’s disciples, and we will come closer to the holiness of God.

Dear Jesus, thank you that we are set apart and called to a higher purpose. Help us to live in a way that others can see you in us. Amen.