To live is to love, and to love is to give. “God is love,” and “God so loved the world that He gave.” “Who loved me, and gave himself for me.” This gospel of giving one’s self in ministry wherever there is a need to be supplied is constantly being proclaimed throughout the whole universe of God, and thus is His character revealed in the things that are made. The greatest giver in the universe is God himself. “He giveth to all life and breath, and all things.” “Every good giving and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” “The eyes of all wait upon thee. . . . Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” When man was made in the image of God, the same life of love filled and ruled his being, and he stood at the head of creation, so far as this world was concerned, because of his ability and his willingness to give himself in ministering to every dependent thing. When man turned away from his allegiance to God, “selfishness took the place of love,” and man revealed the change by centering his thoughts upon himself. Then came such a new revelation of what love really is that all created intelligences have been amazed at its unfolding. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And so “in the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven.”
The true measure of God’s love is seen in the fact that He gave the best He had, reserving no choicer things to use upon himself, and this principle was manifested in the whole experience of Christ upon earth. He “took upon Him the form of a servant,” and gave himself up to a constant and self-renouncing ministry. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life.” And thus the commandment which He gave, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” was the law of His own life. The love of God is a living principle which reveals itself in the conduct of men. It is known by what it does. Those in whose hearts this love is shed abroad by the Holy Ghost act in their sphere on the same principles upon which God acts in His sphere. This is the inevitable result of partaking of the divine nature. “Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” And as the love of God was revealed on His part in giving the best He had to others, in loving His neighbor as himself, so the same love will be revealed in the same way when it rules in the heart of man.
Through the corrupting influence of false principles the idea has prevailed that the worship of God consists in singing hymns, listening to eloquent sermons, and performing a more or less elaborate ritual on stated occasions, and so this has been called “divine service.” But in His teaching Christ showed that worship and the service of love are the same. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” And His own example indicated what He meant by such service. “I am among you as he that serveth.” And so “He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.”
In the work now to be done “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord,” a message of life and health is to be given to the world, and they are to learn that the gospel provides for the healing of disease as well as the forgiveness of sin; in fact, that there is the same physician and the same remedy for both. “I the Lord am thy physician.” “And no inhabitant shall say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be one whose iniquity is forgiven.” In revealing these principles to His people as the complete gospel of life the Lord has committed to them a ministry which will be welcomed by the many who are suffering from the result of their ignorance, or even from their willful transgression, and thus He has given them access to hearts which might be otherwise closed to the truth. Thus is the channel provided through which the life current may flow, and a way prepared for expressing the true significance of worship in helpful ministry. “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” “The greatest missionary work that can be done in our world is work in ministerial lines combined with medical missionary work.”
The principles of the heavenly kingdom have been perverted and reversed by the god of this world. The rule of the world is for each one to make himself the chief object of his thought and effort. “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” are the main questions to be answered by the life-work of the many. The great ones of the earth are those who have amassed large property, or are in a position to “exercise lordship” over others. But all this is the reverse of the true principle. “He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.” In a life based upon these principles a revelation is made to the world of the character of Him who—
“With condescending grace
Looks down upon the human race.”
The treatment of the poor and needy is the true index of character, and the decisions of the judgment turn upon it. This is not an arbitrary basis of reward and punishment, but is simply making permanent the results of choices already made by those who are judged. The transgressors of God’s law will receive the just reward of their deeds, but “he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Therefore one class are called to inherit the kingdom because of their ministry to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and those in prison; while the other class are told to depart because they had neglected to do this same work. The ground of this decision is declared to be that “inasmuch as ye have done it [or did it not] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it [or did it not] unto me.” Thus is the truth practically set forth that Jesus, who showed himself neighbor to us, is to be recognized by us as our neighbor in the compassionate treatment of those in need of help. To love our neighbor as ourself is therefore to bring back to Jesus in kindly ministry to others the love which He has so freely bestowed upon the human family in identifying himself with them in their need.
QUESTIONS.
What is the true law of life?
Who gave us the example?
What is the evidence of the love of God in the heart?
What is the true significance of all worship?
What is one of the ways in which this will find expression?
What is the measure of true greatness?
Whose character is thus revealed?
On what ground are the blessed invited to the enjoyment of the kingdom?
On what ground are others shut out of the kingdom?
Who is served or neglected in the treatment accorded to the needy?
