p. 7 | THE PROOF OF LOVE by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 1, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 18.

THE PROOF OF LOVE.

By G.

The purpose of this probationary life is that human beings may have opportunity to become fitted for the kingdom of heaven, and to prove their appreciation of the opportunity. Salvation is a question of the reciprocity of love. God so loved the creatures of His hand, even in their rebellion against His authority, that He gave His Son to suffer the penalty of their transgression in their stead. It was in the giving of His Son that the love of God toward us was manifested. 1 John 4:9. All that He asks in return for this great service of love is that we will repent of our sins, accept His Son as our Saviour, and accord to Him the first place in our affections. So the apostle adds: “We love Him, because He first loved us.” Verse 19.

But it stands to reason that, having once been rebellious, our profession of love for Him should be thoroly tested. This is not only essential to the future happiness of His kingdom, but it is necessary that we ourselves be not deceived and come short in the end. For this purpose we are exhorted by the apostle Paul: “Try your own selves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.” 2 Cor. 13:5, R.V. God is reasonable in His insistence that our love shall be proved; for He invites us to prove Him. See Mal. 3:10. And He has at times submitted to having His word tested by visible signs in order to satisfy fallible men who were slow to accept it without such test. The cases of Moses (Ex. 3 and 4), Gideon (Judges 6:36–40), and Zacharias (Luke 1:18–20), are marked instances of God’s placing Himself under test to prove His word to His own servants.

The great comprehensive test of love is, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15. To this is added a precious promise: “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” Ch. 15:10. This test of our love to God is further elucidated in 1 John 5: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of Him.” Verse 1. This brings us directly to the love of the brethren as inseparably connected with the love of God. And the next verse makes the love of the brethren a proof of the love of God: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.”

This fact is illustrated in the last two verses of the previous chapter: “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” Then the covenant of peace (Isa. 54:10) between God and man may be thus stated: God, taking the initiative, manifested His love to us while we were yet in rebellion, by the gift of His Son; and we manifest our love to Him by accepting His gift in faith. His love, then, is already proved; ours must be proved by keeping the commandments, which we formerly transgressed. (“Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4.) Our love, like faith, must be proved by our works, and not by mere profession.

In the Sunday-school lesson, on page 14 of this paper, we have the incident of Christ testing Peter’s love for Him. The occasion was their meeting by the seaside after the resurrection of Christ. It was on the morning after Peter and six other apostles had spent the night in fishing. Before the death of Christ, Peter had made strong protestations of love for Him; but at a most critical moment, when the Master most needed the sympathy of His companions in labor, Peter denied having any connection with Him whatever. However, the Lord had forgiven him, and on this occasion by the sea he had shown quite a demonstration of devotion. But the Lord showed him, as He does all others, that his profession of love must be tested by practical application.

“Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?” was the pointed question directed to the disciple. Peter was not so self-assertive as he had been before his humiliating fall, yet he assumed that his love was sufficiently conspicuous to be already known to the Lord. Christ did not intimate that this was not so; indeed, He assented that it was true by immediately giving him such employment as would thoroly test its endurance. “He saith unto him, Feed My lambs.” Afterward the Lord asked him the second time, “Lovest thou Me?” Peter replied as before, and Jesus repeated the test. The question was asked the third time; and altho Peter showed grief at being apparently doubted, the Lord simply emphasized the true test without disputing the disciple’s claim.

Now, this work to which Peter was appointed as a test of his love for the Master, was a work of love for his brethren—for the Master’s sheep that were “scattered abroad.” It was just the work that Jesus Himself had been doing, and which had proved His love for His brethren. “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” Matt. 9:35, 36.

On what was Peter to feed the sheep and the lambs of the Master’s flock? On the very occasion under consideration the Lord enjoined him, “Follow thou Me;” and He had before testified of His own work that He had given the disciples the Word of God. They were to be sanctified thru that Word, and as the Father had sent Him into the world, He would send them into the world. John 17:8, 14, 17, 18. He had “opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45), and had promised the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth (John 16:13). This was to be the special work of all the apostles, and in this way not only Peter, but all of them were to feed the “lambs” and the “sheep” entrusted to their care.

That they all understood this to be their work, is shown in their course with the large church of Jerusalem. When the believers had all things in common, complaint was made to the apostles that some “widows were neglected in the daily ministrations.” Then the twelve apostles called the church together and counseled them to choose men to attend to that business; but they said, “We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.” Acts 6:4. But the love of the brethren is also shown in the ministry to physical necessities; and in this we also have the example of the Lord before us, and here is a field in which all can work and prove their love. The Lord did not single out Peter that he alone might have the instruction to follow the Master, and to feed the flock. It was a lesson that Peter especially needed, and this occasion was chosen for the purpose of imparting it to him; but it was “written for our learning.”

The ministry of the hands is not to be forgotten. The apostle Paul worked with his own hands to help sustain those who labored with him; and he was always mindful of the poor. James also exhorts us to assist the destitute, to give them food and clothing as they may need. He tells us that “pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction; and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27. G.