What Manner of Love by G. W. White

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 19, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 12.

What Manner of Love

By G. W. White

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. 1 John 3:1.

BEHOLD" is distinctively a Bible word. It is used therein more than thirteen hundred times. When John announced Jesus as the Messiah, he cried, "Behold the Lamb of God." With Jesus standing in the presence of that jeering, blaspheming multitude on the day of His crucifixion, Pilate cried, "Behold the Man." The angel at the empty tomb addressed the women, saying, "Behold the place where they laid Him." To His doubting disciples the risen Saviour exclaimed, "Behold My hands and My feet." And as the beloved John thought it all over, and there burst upon his soul a sense of the marvelous character of God's love for fallen man, he was led to cry out in astonishment, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us."

It was not the fact that God loves that drew this exclamation from the soul of this gray-haired apostle; but the character of the love and the object of this wonderful love of God. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us."

We Regard Love as So Common a Thing

that it is no cause for wonder that God loves. God is love. It is natural for Him to love, and it is natural for His creatures to love; but His love is of a different nature from ours.

We love because of some qualities which excite pleasing sensations. We love a friend because of some quality he possesses which gives us pleasure in his society. We love those who have done us favors. We love our parents and our children because of their connection with us and because of their qualities which please us. In brief, we love whatever contributes to our pleasure; but those things which detract from our pleasure, we do not naturally love. Now, right here is where—

God's Love Differs from Ours

It is no wonder that God loves. The wonder is that He loves us. There are thousands upon thousands of pure, sinless angels in heaven. They ever do His bidding, and have never transgressed His law, and therefore have never been marred by sin. Why was He not content to love them only?

There are myriads of pure, sinless beings in other worlds who have not trampled upon His law and who are worthy of His love. Why was He not content to love them alone?

Ah, here is the peculiar "manner" of love wherewith He has loved us. It is different from the love of all others.

We love those who are attractive and lovable, those who add to our pleasure, those in whom we see pleasing qualities, those who love us; but—

God Loves the Unattractive, the Unlovely

those who possess no natural qualities that can enrich Him, those in whom there is nothing good, those who love Him not. For "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. 5:8. And "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son," that we, unlovely, unattractive, unholy, and sinful as we are, might by faith be transformed into the image of His dear Son. Is it any wonder that John calls upon us to "behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us"?

Dear reader, have you beheld this wonderful love of our heavenly Father? He says He has set His love upon you. Have you responded to His tender pleadings to come and walk with Him, that you may know the fulness of His love, and have a part in the kingdom that He is soon coming to set up? It is all for you, you.