A GOD OF LOVE by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 8, 1905

A GOD OF LOVE.

By G.

A GOD of love is unknown to the heathen. They worship their gods and sacrifice to them because of a superstitious dread of their vengeance. In the minds of the spiritually ignorant there is no occasion for rendering homage or giving sacrifice to a God of love; because they do not apprehend any danger from such a God, they will not give Him any attention.

But when one has been taught of God, and has been awakened by His Spirit to a sense of his need of a God of love, the outlook becomes decidedly changed. He sees the situation in a new light. When the mirror of God’s law has been held up before him, and he sees himself a sinner; when the light of divine truth reveals to him “that the wages of sin is death,” and that nothing he can do in his own strength and wisdom can save him; and when the Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaims to him that a God of love has provided a way of salvation by the sacrifice of His beloved Son; then he sees reason to love and to worship and reverence a God of love. Not that he expects to repay such love, but because he has become imbued with the same Spirit of involuntary love that actuated such a sacrifice in his behalf.

And this Spirit moves the rescued sinner not only to reciprocate the Saviour’s love, but in turn to reach out to others after whom the love of God is also reaching. When the heart has become regenerated by the Spirit of love, the attention is at once directed toward others who need a like reformation. When Andrew found Jesus precious to his soul, he at once sought his brother Simon. When Saul was converted, he immediately began preaching Christ.

So the evidence of a true conversion is manifest in the desire to lead others to Christ. The love of Christ is manifest in His self-denial for the sake of others who need Him. And that Spirit will permeate the heart of every true believer. The child of God must be a child of love; “for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” And it is not any good thing in us that earns His love, for “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Then, “if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” And how can we manifest such love to a certainty?—“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments.” G.