Love in the Church and Home by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 7, 1911

Love in the Church and Home

By F. M. W.

No attribute of the divine character has been so maligned and misrepresented by Satan as that of God's love. He did this work in heaven, he is doing it now in the earth. His agents are myriad, and may be found in every place, invading, even as of old, the assemblies of the sons of God. He sows still the seeds of envy and jealousy, of variance and emulations, of wrath and strife and sedition, of criticism, quarreling, and fighting. He makes of professed Christians unlovely characters, and holds them up as examples of the grace of Christ.

The great need of the world when God gave his Son to die for it was a revelation of love. That same revelation is as greatly needed to-day. The great professed Christian church needs more of this grace. We as Seventh-day Adventists need to cultivate it in greater fulness. A coldness has invaded our membership. The old-time spirit of cordiality, hospitality, and brotherly love which once characterized this people is dying out. We need to return to our first love to God and to our brethren.

We need hearts to feel for each other in the trial, the sorrow, the weakness, and even the shortcomings and mistakes, which in some measure and at some time are the common lot of all. We need to stretch out the helping hand and speak the word of courage to the faltering, stumbling ones on every side. This was Christ's spirit; and if he abides within, it will be our spirit. Our brethren and sisters do not need our criticism, even though they have gone astray or fallen in sin. They need, if they have erred, above every other time, our sympathy, our prayers, our kindly Christian labor in reclaiming them to their former experience.

We see in our church to-day too many sharp critics, too many idle talkers, too many wicked gossipers, too many who stand ready to pick up every little fault in others and peddle it about the church. This sometimes is done under the specious plea of loyalty to the church, and regard for the honor of the cause. Men are made offenders for a word, and their names and reputations are handled with easy indifference.

The church needs to be cleansed from these unsanctified elements. Love and tenderness need to be cultivated. The spirit of unfeeling criticism should be put away. We need to press together as brethren, as members of a common faith and united interests. We should exercise more patience toward the careless, more long-suffering for the erring, more forbearance toward the weak and faltering.

This kind of love should be distinguished from the sentimentalism we see in the world around us. It is not a love which condones sin or passes over evil. It is a love which distinguishes between the sinner and his sin, and while condemning the wrong, seeks to save the sinner from that wrong.

“By this,” says Christ, “shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another.”

We need more love in our homes. The spirit of alienation is seeking entrance to every heart, and in some is finding admission. In the world around us we see divided or ruined homes at every turn. Against this great citadel and bulwark of society, Satan is making his fiercest assaults.

Will our homes, our families, be able to withstand the power of his onslaughts? Only by God's grace can this be done. We need to press together as families, to cultivate love and confidence in one another. Husbands and wives, parents and children, need to come close to one another in loving sympathy. and tender helpfulness.

This spirit can not be cultivated without time and thought and carefulness. The busy rush of this strenuous age will leave us scant room for the little kindnesses and courtesies of life, if we are not careful. Unconsciously we shall become strangers to those with whom we daily associate.

But taking time to become acquainted with our children, our parents, our brothers and sisters, will pay in the end. It will cultivate in us and in them the sweeter and more tender qualities of life, whereby our efficiency as laborers in the great world's work will be doubly enhanced. It is not alone the rugged, sterner qualities of character that have their use in gospel labor, but the softening, subduing ones also have a place to fill and a work to do. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

F. M. W.