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THE LOVE OF GOD

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 13, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 7.

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THE LOVE OF GOD.

By G. H. Heald

BY G. H. HEALD, M.D.
Not simply love to God, or for God, as is sometimes supposed, but the love of God—God’s love; for “God is love,” and “love is of God.” “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.” It might be said with equal truth that we know we dwell in love, and love dwells in us, because he has given us of his Spirit; for “he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God,” and “if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” See 1 John 4:7-16. Moreover, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Rom. 5:5.
“If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15.
This love of the Father is not something which it is in our power to exert or manifest. It is entirely distinct from us naturally, being a gift from God to such only as choose to receive it.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” 1 John 3:1. There is more in the expression than simply God’s love to us, which of course is included, and which we may say includes all else; but it also implies the love which God has shed abroad in our hearts.
The language of the original would make it proper to translate, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, or shed abroad in our hearts, in order that we might be called the sons of God.” “Therefore”—for this reason—“the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” This rendering of the text makes the “therefore” more significant. It is difficult to understand why God’s loving us and calling us sons would prevent the world knowing us; but where God has changed our characters by implanting therein his love, the world, not knowing him, can not know us.
When this is accomplished in us, it can be truly said, “Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
The words “we” and “us” are used here because used in the texts, but it is to be hoped that every reader may, with the writer, be among that number who, having “this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” 1 John 3:3.
Battle Creek, Mich.