TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE by M. C. W.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 27, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 20.

TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE.

By M. C. W.

How little of this precious grace is found among professed Christians of to-day, though how much we hear said about it! There is more outward friendliness, perhaps, among Christian sects, but many times this seeming friendliness springs not so much from real love and true union, as it does from want of real devotion and lack of strong conviction of the truthfulness of what men profess to believe. They find it much easier to agree by ignoring what they believe, or having no positive belief, than they do to follow the plain truth or their convictions of duty. The first will bring an agreeable union to the carnal heart, the latter course often separates very friends. But love counts not the cost. To know God’s will is to do it; to hear his voice is to believe it. While those who possess that love will be forbearing toward others, they will not compromise the truth of God to please others. “Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.” He who has true love for the sinner has true love for God; for love for man springs from love to God. And that soul who will compromise right or truth, or slight God’s revealed will, in order to make peace with his fellow-men, has no true love toward them; for the compromise is to gain a selfish peace. He will break the patched-up union with his friends as quickly as he would compromise God’s truth, if inducements are sufficient. True Christian love is love first to God, and such love to man as will lead him from sin to righteousness, from evil to good. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.” 1 John 5:2. M. C. W.