Words cannot begin to capture the horrors endured by the Pilgrims that first Massachusetts winter. Yet William Bradford, the Pilgrim leader and first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, would at least try to capture it in his journal Of Plymouth Plantation. His record reveals that within a few months of their arrival in November 1620, half of the first one hundred settlers would die on account of starvation, cold, and disease.

To make things worse, desperation and loneliness accompanied many up to the moment of their deaths. Bradford unpacks the dire scene: “For they that before had been boon companions in drinking and jollity in the time of their health and welfare, began now to desert one another in this calamity, saying they would not hazard their lives for [the sick, since] they should be infected by coming to help them in their cabins; and so, after they came to lie by it, would do little or nothing for them but, ‘if they died, let them die.’”

Yet, among all the misery and malady, something beautiful would happen. A small band of six or seven would sacrifice their strength and safety to serve the dying in the most extreme ways. The record here provides a stark contrast. These noble few would do “all the homely and necessary offices for [the diseased] which dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear named; and all this willingly and cheerfully, without any grudging in the least, showing herein their true love unto their friends and brethren; a rare example and worthy to be remembered.” So, who were these self-sacrificing ministers of mercy?

In a most telling section of the journal, the identity of this group becomes clear. One of the self-professed pagans exclaimed to one of his caretakers: “Oh! You, I now see, show your love like Christians indeed one to another, but we let one another lie and die like dogs.” And what marked the difference between the self-sacrificing six or seven and the other abled-bodied abstainers? It was Christian love. Not just love for mankind in general but the love from Christians to other Christians. From the dying lips of this rejecter of the faith, we learn that love and care for one another uniquely marks the authentic Christian community. At least anecdotally, love for the brethren is what real Christianity looks like.

Anecdotal or Essential?

The story itself is fascinating, but is it formative? What is the significance of Christian love for our lives? When it comes to our salvation, what does love have to do with it?

For our Lord Jesus, Christian love was more than a mere anecdote; it actually represented a nonnegotiable for discipleship. On the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus pronounced: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35). These were vital instructions. After all, disciples were historically identified by the physical presence of their masters. Yet, Jesus’ imminent absence would necessitate a new means by which others could discern their master’s identity, namely, Christian love.

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