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LOVING ONE ANOTHER

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 17, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 38.

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LOVING ONE ANOTHER.

By G. B. Thompson

ELDER G. B. THOMPSON.
The beloved apostle says: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18. What a beautiful world this would be if this injunction was obeyed. Banish all hate from the earth, and we should have a paradise, an Eden restored, where the Lord would commune with His people.
Somebody has said that man only is vile. In all creation we see love manifested. Man’s heart alone is filled with hatred and strife toward his own kind. Behold the wars and scenes of carnage, chariots of destruction driven on the fields of strife by mortal hate. The dead and maimed, the widows and orphans, tell the sad story. Behold the murderer, the suicide, the awful procession journeying on to the land of the departed, with the thousands of victims of rage, of greed, and of lust.
How merciful, tender, and loving we should be toward one another! A writer has said, “At best, life is not very long; a few more smiles, a few more tears, some pleasure, much pain, sunshine and song, clouds and darkness, hasty greetings and abrupt farewells—then our little play will close, and injurer and injured will pass away together. Is it worth while to hate one another?” Have we been wronged? The Lord has undertaken the work of righting the wrongs of His people. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Let us leave our cause in His hands. Not long ago a brother said to me, “Brother Thompson, I propose to have justice if it takes me years to obtain it.” What a spirit! This brother cherished this spirit, and to-day he has no hope; his whole soul has become darkened.
It is not justice we want, it is mercy. Justice would long ago have cut us down as cumberers of the ground, but mercy still spares the tree. The man in the parable was ten thousand talents in debt, and as he had nothing with which to pay, his lord freely forgave him all. But this same man went out, and seeing a poor, poverty-stricken human being who owed him a hundred pence, took him by the throat and demanded payment. He was determined to have justice. That man represents you and me. We have trespassed against the Lord, and piled up a debt which we can never liquidate. But O, the mercy of God! We confess to Him our condition, and in love He forgives. While we have received from the Lord forgiveness for the ten thousand talents, have we refused forgiveness for the petty offenses committed by others against us? If we do this, the Lord says we shall have to pay the ten thousand talents at last. Matt. 18:34, 35. We should pray for a heart of love, that we may forgive even as the Lord forgives.