Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
Beloved are called to keep loving one another through life because love comes from God, and everyone who truly loves shows new birth from Him and personal knowledge of Him. That love was shown when God first loved needy sinners and sent His only Son to give life and to atone for sin, and because He so loved, believers ought to love even to laying down life for one another. Real love cannot be made by the natural heart but lives only where Christ reigns, and it is unselfish and disinterested, shown not in word only but in deed and practical care for a needy brother. When believers so love, though no one has seen God, He dwells in them and His love is made complete in them, and this mutual love is the mark of discipleship and the testimony to the world that Christ is formed within. Not loving proves not knowing God, for no one who hates a brother whom he has seen can love God whom he has not seen.
Command to Love One Another
Beloved, keep loving one another, for love is from God, and this is a constant, lifelong charge to be exercised continually. It was pressed by John to his old age and to the day of his death because brotherly love was waning in the church and believers needed to be urged to keep it. After witnessing the destruction of Jerusalem and the stately temple as a symbol of the final ruin of the world, he closely followed his Lord to his latest days, making mutual love the burden of his testimony as the life of one who dwells in God and in whom God dwells. The reason given is God's own love shown in sending His only begotten Son into the world that people might live through Him, so because God so loved, those whom God loves ought also to love one another. Loving in this way is the mark of being born of God and knowing God.
What is commanded is the tender, thoughtful, self-denying love Christ commanded, such as the apostles revealed after the descent of the Holy Spirit in sweetness of communion, in daily association, and by unselfish words and deeds that kindle love in other hearts. It stands confronted with looking for defects in one another, dwelling upon mistakes, giving place to unkind criticism, becoming strict about outward ceremonies, particular about theory, severe in criticism, and zealous to condemn others. Such a course forgets personal errors and Christ's lesson of brotherly love, loses sight of the Saviour and His great love for sinners, shuts the love of God out of the heart, takes away happiness and joy without the loss being realized, and leaves believers moving toward walking in darkness.
Those who profess to love the Saviour must love those united with them in Christian fellowship, for they are of the same faith, members of one family, all children of the same heavenly Father, with the same blessed hope of immortality, and the tie binding them together should be close and tender. The love of Christ binds together all members of His heavenly family, and wherever that love is made manifest in love to one another there the divine relationship is revealed, proving that the one who loves is born of God and knows God. Love for God's people draws hearts together and is expressed in words and thoughtful, courteous actions, at home and in the church. Keeping this proves faith is exerting a sanctifying influence upon the heart, while neglecting it gives occasion to reproach faith, because the people of the world are watching believers to see that influence and are quick to discern every defect in life and every inconsistency in action.
Cherishing Christ's principles and becoming a blessing through the influence of the divine Spirit marks God's children even with little theology, including among the heathen those who cherish kindness, befriend sufferers at peril to their own lives before hearing the words of life, worship God ignorantly, hear His voice in nature, and do what the law requires, whose works prove the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts and who will be commended in the judgment. Loving one another as Christ loved is Christ's new commandment and the mark by which all know His disciples, a duty from God and the sign of discipleship by which genuine conversion is proved. It requires hiding in Jesus in humility, meekness, and lowliness, conforming to the image of Jesus, doing the work God gives irrespective of what others think or do, not looking at the mistakes of brethren, and striving in humility to preserve unity and harmony, springing from true heart-consecration that keeps self out of sight, senses personal weakness, trusts God with invincible faith, and craves His grace to do what is right and pure and true.
Those filled with the love of Christ love one another as brethren by being pitiful and courteous and by refusing to think or speak evil or to make discord, strife, or contention, which are bitter fruit never borne on the Christian tree. This love treats every soul as precious because God gave His only begotten Son for redemption and Christ died for them, makes workers for the salvation of souls closely allied to God like ministering angels through the transforming power of Christ's grace, and displays the sign of discipleship to the church and the world as a strong argument for genuine conversion. Practicing this love brings peace and quietness in the Lord and ennobles and uplifts the whole person, while neglecting it prevents perfection of Christlike character.
Love's Divine Source
Love is of God, of heavenly origin and principle and a heavenly growth and gift that the unconverted, unconsecrated, natural heart cannot produce or create. Where this love exists there are truth, life, and power, and it lives and flourishes only where Christ reigns. It must be continually nourished by heaven, for it cannot live in the natural heart apart from that supply.
This love is known through action rather than profession, and it must be put into practice in gentle, patient, forgiving conduct that seeks the good of others and their interests as one's own. Each loving act strengthens and extends it, causing it to grow and spread to others as it is exercised. Even a small or humble deed done in pure love is fruitful, for God measures work by the love in it more than by how much is done, valuing the love behind a deed above its size. So exercised, it overlooks little mistakes and is not quick to mark small errors, works for good and nothing else, transforms people, and accomplishes what money, force, authority, or argument and many words cannot.
Love begins with God, who first loved needy sinners, not because they were attractive in character or good, but because they needed a Saviour and Redeemer to rescue them from Satan to whom they were sold through belief of the first parents in his lie. He revealed that love by purchasing the gift of everlasting life for them at infinite cost, and every soul is saved through this love. Sins are forgiven only by accepting the provision made, and divine grace renews the heart to make love its guiding principle, shaping character, governing impulses and passions, subduing enmity, ennobling affection, sweetening life, and turning selfishness into holy affection for God and for one another. No one who acts out the character of Satan can be regarded as worthy to be chosen as Christ's jewels, but to be His, people must be good and do good.
God and Christ are love, and love is vital tenderness born of God that reflects the pattern of God. Everyone who loves and works in harmony with Christ keeps peace. Building on a false theory to ruin the soul is not love.
Born of God, Knowing God
Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, so love for one another is the evidence of genuine conversion, new birth, and living connection with heaven. A profession of faith means nothing unless Christ is revealed in righteous actions, and love is not mere words or feeling but is shown in practical care for others. The love required is loving one another as Christ loved, as broad and full as His love, even to laying down life, and keeping God's commandments to abide in that love. This mutual love is the credential and testimony that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, the test and measure of genuine religious experience and sanctification through the truth, with conduct fashioned after the divine Pattern. When Christ's love is in the heart it works like leaven with life-giving power, bringing mind and soul and strength into complete harmony with the divine life, implanting a new nature in which sanctification is received and the grace of Christ is more and more developed through faith which works by love and purifies the soul.
Not loving proves not knowing God, for God is love, and knowing God is inseparable from loving. Those who truly love God must manifest lovingkindness of heart, judgment, and righteousness to all, representing Christ as His agents in sanctified association in which Christ lives and works in them, with no evil-speaking and evil-thinking which ruin the soul. Loving one another in deed and in truth, as Christ loved, proves belonging to the truth, shows God dwells within and His love is perfected, and gives assurance of dwelling in Him by His Spirit. No one who does not love his brother whom he has seen can love God whom He has not seen, so claiming to love God while hating a brother is lying, and God commands that he who loves God love his brother also. Cain is the opposite pattern, being of the wicked one and slaying his brother because his own works were evil and disobedient and his brother's were righteous, moved by jealousy and wrath that his brother's offering was accepted while his own was rejected, a jealousy cruel as death that true love never shows.
This knowing is sanctified knowledge, and love is the key of knowledge. Contrition and faith and love enable the soul to receive wisdom from heaven, and faith working by love opens the teaching of Scripture in new light so that Christ's words are seen as full of freshness and truth and beauty and His voice is recognized, while an unbelieving spirit that comes only to criticize and judge closes the door to the most precious opportunities. Through love human beings bear a right relation to God and to each other, with truth in its exalted, holy character and the moral law exalted as the elevated standard of righteousness. Even with little theology, cherishing Christ's principles and becoming a blessing through the influence of the divine Spirit marks God's children, including among the heathen those who cherish kindness, befriend sufferers at peril to their own lives before hearing the words of life, worship God ignorantly, hear His voice in nature, and do what the law requires, whose works prove the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts and who will be commended in the judgment. The knowledge of God's love is received and can be shared with others, and those who teach it must themselves have a real religious experience. Love fulfills God's law by loving God supremely and neighbor as self, honors God, and brings peace and goodwill.
Love and purity are the attributes most appreciated by the heavenly Father and the crucified, risen, and ascended Saviour. Love out of a pure heart, charity out of a pure heart, is the quality Christ values most in people and the fruit produced by a Christian life and borne upon the Christian tree. Love marked by patience and kindness reflects God's love and is prized in Christ's representatives, a quality God prizes that every Christian should cherish alongside purity. Loving one another causes God to dwell within and perfects His love within, for God is love and he who dwells in love dwells in God and God in him. He who loves God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself fulfills the entire law, which is glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men, requiring paying no attention to insult or depreciation, going forward in duty, having generous sympathy for all who have made and are still making mistakes, making straight paths for one's own feet, and having a tender, humble, sympathetic, pitying heart, which is not weakness to be ashamed of but strength derived from Christ.
God's Love in Christ
Love was made visible when God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that people might live through Him and be rescued from sin. That sending is the proof that love comes from God and the reason His beloved people are to love one another constantly. Loving others in this way is evidence of being born of God and knowing Him, for knowing God cannot be separated from loving.
He loved first, and the initiative did not begin with human love for God but with His love for humanity in sending His Son to atone as the propitiation for sins. He loved needy sinners not because they were attractive in character or good, but because they needed a Saviour and Redeemer to rescue them from Satan, to whom they were sold through belief of the first parents in his lie. By that love He purchased the gift of everlasting life for them at infinite cost.
Sins are forgiven only by accepting the provision thus made, and no one who acts out the character of Satan can be regarded as worthy to be chosen as Christ's jewels; to be His, people must be good and do good. Those who continue in the service of God return to whole-hearted obedience by depending on the merits of a crucified Saviour and trusting in His atonement for salvation. Christ formed within them is righteousness and truth, and the pure, fervent love that is of God, begotten by the love of God with which they are imbued, brings forgiveness of transgressions, pardon of sins, and God's look of pleasure upon them.
Because God so loved, believers ought also to love one another. That debt of love extends even to laying down their lives for the brethren, as He laid down His life.
Character of True Love
Real love is unselfish and disinterested, not seeking what is agreeable or profitable and not looking only on its own things while closing the eyes to the interests of others. It loses sight of self, pleasure, convenience and advantage, centers in God, and seeks the welfare and highest good of others because they have been redeemed by Christ's blood. Disinterested liberality therefore shares abundance to help struggling enterprises live and prosper, and success increases in proportion as this unselfish love is exercised. This love is the living principle of brotherhood implanted by the Holy Spirit, leaving no hiding place for selfishness and bringing heaven's order, harmony, wisdom, mercy, refinement, noble principle, heavenly courtesy and charity into every family, church and institution. Its presence brings moral transformation fitting people for the society of heaven, since selfish, rough, unkind and self-exalting persons will not compose God's family unless changed to be meek, sincere and simple as a little child.
The love required is as broad and full as Christ's love, loving others as He loved even to laying down life. Keeping God's commandments abides in that love, and it never compromises with sin, refusing jealousy cruel as death like Cain and bringing the best offering in the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Practicing this love brings peace and quietness and ennobles and uplifts the whole person, while neglecting it prevents perfection of Christlike character.
It is not in word and tongue only but in deed and truth, shown in practical care such as helping a needy brother, doing good and nothing else. A profession of faith means nothing unless Christ is revealed in righteous actions, and a loveless life is incompatible with knowing God. God values the love behind a deed more than its size, so that even a small act done in love is fruitful. Loving one another in this way proves belonging to the truth, shows God dwells within with His love perfected, and gives assurance of dwelling in Him by His Spirit.
It is tender, thoughtful, self-denying, pitiful, courteous and sympathetic, expressed in kind, tender, sympathetic words, cheerful talk of faith, and unselfish words and deeds that kindle love in other hearts. It shows forbearing, courteous, Christlike spirit even when views differ, not crowding and pushing others because they do not see alike but respecting the rights of brethren, especially by those in responsibility who must be an example worthy of imitation. It thinks well and speaks well of brethren, thinks no evil, hopes and believes all good rather than evil or false reports, and dwells on what is pure, lovely and of good report. Harshness, accusation, evil-speaking and evil-thinking are of the devil and are never borne on the Christian tree. Educators must therefore let this love overcome selfishness and harshness, taking youth as they are, bearing patiently with ignorance, dealing tenderly with the sensitive and nervous, faithfully correcting wrong so as to bind the reproved still closer, joining exact impartial justice and firmness with mercy, bearing with perversity and rebellion without love growing cold, and standing with open arms to welcome the erring rather than standing aloof, indifferent, unapproachable, harsh and censorious.
It forbids hatred, treasured grievances, false assumptions, dwelling on defects and mistakes, suspicion and doubt, jealousy and imagined slights, unkind criticism, zeal to condemn, strictness over outward ceremonies, exactness over theory, fault-finding, and biting and devouring one another. A spirit of hatred must decidedly change for a person to stand acquitted before God, and holding such sentiments brings present and eternal injury. Such looking for defects, dwelling on mistakes, forgetting one's own errors and losing sight of the Saviour and His great love for sinners shuts the love of God out of the heart, takes away happiness and joy without the loss being realized, and leaves believers walking in darkness. Cherishing instead tenderness and loving confidence toward brethren discourages jealousy and helps bring a loving response. The requirement is to hide in humility, meekness and lowliness, conform to the divine Pattern, do the work given irrespective of what others think or do, not look at the mistakes of brethren, keep self out of sight, sense personal weakness, trust God with invincible faith, crave His grace to do what is right and pure and true, and strive to preserve unity and harmony.
It is benevolence and tender sympathy and love for souls seeking to save the lost. It is the life and very essence of Christianity, not merely part of character but the character itself, flowing from connection with Christ like nourishment from the parent stock. Those who have this mind and spirit carry out His design in service as channels of light, disciplined and trained by the Holy Spirit and working with heavenly agencies as co-laborers with God to win souls from error and sin to truth and holiness, using words and abilities in His service. Received into the heart as an active power for good, it quickens the faculties of mind and powers of soul, enlarges capacity for feeling and loving, leads to loving all the children of God with respectful demeanor and considerate courtesy that wins confidence, and where it pervades institutions without dissimulation they become a representation of heaven on earth and a perpetual testimony of what sanctifying truth can do. Since every person desires this love exercised toward himself, he is called to reveal the same spirit toward others, and the love of Jesus must pervade the hearts of those who would serve Him. True affection must be encouraged and expressed especially in childhood rather than discouraged and repressed, for repressing it stifles the better nature and makes hard-hearted men and women whose cold selfishness unless melted by divine love will ruin happiness forever, while encouraging generous, loving impulses gives children the tender spirit of Jesus and the sympathy angels manifest.
He who loves God with all heart, might, mind and strength and his neighbor as himself fulfills the entire law on which hang all the law and the prophets. Its manifestation is glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill toward men. This highest standard is expressed in meekness and lowliness of heart, paying no attention to insult or depreciation, going forward in duty, having generous sympathy for all who have made and are still making mistakes, making straight paths for one's feet, and having a tender, humble, sympathetic, pitying heart which is not weakness to be ashamed of but strength derived from Christ. The Holy Spirit and the Word agree and the Word must be acted out, producing divine unity and universal brotherhood with order and harmony, without setting aside divine wisdom, while truth and righteousness prevail.
Fruit and Witness of Love
Though no one has ever seen God, loving one another brings God to dwell within and brings His love to completion, which is known because He has given of His Spirit, so that remaining in love is remaining in God and God in him. This completed love gives confidence for the day of judgment because as He is so are believers in this world, and loving in deed and in truth as Christ loved proves belonging to the truth and gives assurance of dwelling in Him. Those who truly love must show lovingkindness of heart, judgment, and righteousness to all as His agents in sanctified association in which Christ lives and works, laying down life for the brethren and helping a needy brother not in word and tongue only but in deed and truth. Fulfilling the entire law by loving God with all the heart and neighbor as self brings glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill toward men, requiring no attention to insult, generous sympathy for those who make mistakes, straight paths, and a tender, humble, sympathetic, pitying heart that is strength derived from Christ and not weakness.
Christ's love in the heart works like leaven with life-giving power to bring all of mind and soul and strength into complete harmony with the divine life, defining religious obligation, genuine experience, and sanctification through the truth with conduct fashioned after the divine Pattern. In loving one another as Christ loved, the soul receives sanctification and obtains faith which works by love and purifies the soul, implanting a new nature in which grace is more and more developed. Divine grace renews the heart and makes love its guiding principle, shaping character, governing impulses and passions, subduing enmity, ennobling affection, and sweetening life, received as an active power for good that quickens faculties of mind and powers of soul and enlarges capacity for feeling and for loving. He who loves God supremely will love all the children of God with respectful demeanor and considerate courtesy that wins confidence, and where this unfeigned love pervades institutions they become a representation of heaven on earth and a perpetual testimony of what sanctifying truth can do when practiced.
Love binds together all members of the heavenly family, and wherever it is made manifest in love to one another the divine relationship is revealed. That love appears as the spirit of peace in peacemakers, surrounding them with the fragrance of Christ and a pure atmosphere, so that loveliness of character and holy life tells the world they are God's children, have been with Jesus, and are connected with heaven. A heart at peace with God is filled with love rather than envy, hatred, or strife and spreads peace to others, whether by revealing Christ through a holy life or by leading others to turn from sin and yield to God. Love for God's people draws hearts together in words and thoughtful, courteous actions at home and in the church, producing divine unity and universal brotherhood with order and harmony while truth and righteousness prevail, and it requires striving in humility to preserve unity, keeping self out of sight, sensing personal weakness, trusting God with invincible faith, and craving His grace to do what is right and pure and true.
This mutual love is the testimony to the world that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, made clear after His suffering, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Keeping it proves faith is exerting a sanctifying influence upon the heart, while neglecting it gives occasion to reproach faith, because the world watches believers and is quick to discern every defect in life and every inconsistency in action. Cheerful, holy effort to keep the unity of the faith and a life of kindly, tender, sympathetic words and hopeful talk of faith gives proof to the world that God sent His only begotten Son as Saviour and glorifies God by witnessing that His rich grace gives peace and joy, whereas harshness and accusation are from the devil. Such sanctified loving activity has effectual influence that molds work after heaven's order with Christ as center of all power, but when self and self-importance rule with ambition to have telling influence and all-absorbing institutional striving, Christ is expelled as not needed and lust for power walks in sparks of human kindling and not in light from the throne.
Pure love is charity in the fullest sense to be taught and practiced in daily life, an essential characteristic of followers of Jesus without which all pretensions to the Christian name are vain, doing good and nothing else. God values the love behind a deed more than its size, so even a small or humble act done in pure love is fruitful, and love must be put into action because each loving act strengthens, grows, and extends it. It overlooks little mistakes and is not quick to mark small errors, seeks neither profit nor reward yet brings good, and where it exists there is truth, life, and power. It works for good, transforms people, overcomes evil and resistance, and can succeed in reforming character and guiding family conduct where argument, authority, force, many words, or money fail.
Practicing this love brings peace and quietness in the Lord and ennobles and uplifts the whole person, and love for brethren is essential to daily happiness in this life and in the life to come. Love must control all gifts with a softened, subduing spirit, for without it all gifts are worthless, and it must be cultivated as part of gaining spiritual dominion over the powers of darkness and shown in how people treat one another. Neglecting it prevents perfection of Christlike character, and when tenderness, compassion, and Christlike love are not shown the opposite character grows and leaves people in danger of losing heaven's blessing and their light.
Beloved are called to keep loving one another through life because love comes from God, and everyone who truly loves shows new birth from Him and personal knowledge of Him. That love was shown when God first loved needy sinners and sent His only Son to give life and to atone for sin, and because He so loved, believers ought to love even to laying down life for one another. Real love cannot be made by the natural heart but lives only where Christ reigns, and it is unselfish and disinterested, shown not in word only but in deed and practical care for a needy brother. When believers so love, though no one has seen God, He dwells in them and His love is made complete in them, and this mutual love is the mark of discipleship and the testimony to the world that Christ is formed within. Not loving proves not knowing God, for no one who hates a brother whom he has seen can love God whom he has not seen.
Command to Love One Another
Beloved, keep loving one another, for love is from God, and this is a constant, lifelong charge to be exercised continually. It was pressed by John to his old age and to the day of his death because brotherly love was waning in the church and believers needed to be urged to keep it. After witnessing the destruction of Jerusalem and the stately temple as a symbol of the final ruin of the world, he closely followed his Lord to his latest days, making mutual love the burden of his testimony as the life of one who dwells in God and in whom God dwells. The reason given is God's own love shown in sending His only begotten Son into the world that people might live through Him, so because God so loved, those whom God loves ought also to love one another. Loving in this way is the mark of being born of God and knowing God.
What is commanded is the tender, thoughtful, self-denying love Christ commanded, such as the apostles revealed after the descent of the Holy Spirit in sweetness of communion, in daily association, and by unselfish words and deeds that kindle love in other hearts. It stands confronted with looking for defects in one another, dwelling upon mistakes, giving place to unkind criticism, becoming strict about outward ceremonies, particular about theory, severe in criticism, and zealous to condemn others. Such a course forgets personal errors and Christ's lesson of brotherly love, loses sight of the Saviour and His great love for sinners, shuts the love of God out of the heart, takes away happiness and joy without the loss being realized, and leaves believers moving toward walking in darkness.
Those who profess to love the Saviour must love those united with them in Christian fellowship, for they are of the same faith, members of one family, all children of the same heavenly Father, with the same blessed hope of immortality, and the tie binding them together should be close and tender. The love of Christ binds together all members of His heavenly family, and wherever that love is made manifest in love to one another there the divine relationship is revealed, proving that the one who loves is born of God and knows God. Love for God's people draws hearts together and is expressed in words and thoughtful, courteous actions, at home and in the church. Keeping this proves faith is exerting a sanctifying influence upon the heart, while neglecting it gives occasion to reproach faith, because the people of the world are watching believers to see that influence and are quick to discern every defect in life and every inconsistency in action.
Cherishing Christ's principles and becoming a blessing through the influence of the divine Spirit marks God's children even with little theology, including among the heathen those who cherish kindness, befriend sufferers at peril to their own lives before hearing the words of life, worship God ignorantly, hear His voice in nature, and do what the law requires, whose works prove the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts and who will be commended in the judgment. Loving one another as Christ loved is Christ's new commandment and the mark by which all know His disciples, a duty from God and the sign of discipleship by which genuine conversion is proved. It requires hiding in Jesus in humility, meekness, and lowliness, conforming to the image of Jesus, doing the work God gives irrespective of what others think or do, not looking at the mistakes of brethren, and striving in humility to preserve unity and harmony, springing from true heart-consecration that keeps self out of sight, senses personal weakness, trusts God with invincible faith, and craves His grace to do what is right and pure and true.
Those filled with the love of Christ love one another as brethren by being pitiful and courteous and by refusing to think or speak evil or to make discord, strife, or contention, which are bitter fruit never borne on the Christian tree. This love treats every soul as precious because God gave His only begotten Son for redemption and Christ died for them, makes workers for the salvation of souls closely allied to God like ministering angels through the transforming power of Christ's grace, and displays the sign of discipleship to the church and the world as a strong argument for genuine conversion. Practicing this love brings peace and quietness in the Lord and ennobles and uplifts the whole person, while neglecting it prevents perfection of Christlike character.
Love's Divine Source
Love is of God, of heavenly origin and principle and a heavenly growth and gift that the unconverted, unconsecrated, natural heart cannot produce or create. Where this love exists there are truth, life, and power, and it lives and flourishes only where Christ reigns. It must be continually nourished by heaven, for it cannot live in the natural heart apart from that supply.
This love is known through action rather than profession, and it must be put into practice in gentle, patient, forgiving conduct that seeks the good of others and their interests as one's own. Each loving act strengthens and extends it, causing it to grow and spread to others as it is exercised. Even a small or humble deed done in pure love is fruitful, for God measures work by the love in it more than by how much is done, valuing the love behind a deed above its size. So exercised, it overlooks little mistakes and is not quick to mark small errors, works for good and nothing else, transforms people, and accomplishes what money, force, authority, or argument and many words cannot.
Love begins with God, who first loved needy sinners, not because they were attractive in character or good, but because they needed a Saviour and Redeemer to rescue them from Satan to whom they were sold through belief of the first parents in his lie. He revealed that love by purchasing the gift of everlasting life for them at infinite cost, and every soul is saved through this love. Sins are forgiven only by accepting the provision made, and divine grace renews the heart to make love its guiding principle, shaping character, governing impulses and passions, subduing enmity, ennobling affection, sweetening life, and turning selfishness into holy affection for God and for one another. No one who acts out the character of Satan can be regarded as worthy to be chosen as Christ's jewels, but to be His, people must be good and do good.
God and Christ are love, and love is vital tenderness born of God that reflects the pattern of God. Everyone who loves and works in harmony with Christ keeps peace. Building on a false theory to ruin the soul is not love.
Born of God, Knowing God
Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, so love for one another is the evidence of genuine conversion, new birth, and living connection with heaven. A profession of faith means nothing unless Christ is revealed in righteous actions, and love is not mere words or feeling but is shown in practical care for others. The love required is loving one another as Christ loved, as broad and full as His love, even to laying down life, and keeping God's commandments to abide in that love. This mutual love is the credential and testimony that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, the test and measure of genuine religious experience and sanctification through the truth, with conduct fashioned after the divine Pattern. When Christ's love is in the heart it works like leaven with life-giving power, bringing mind and soul and strength into complete harmony with the divine life, implanting a new nature in which sanctification is received and the grace of Christ is more and more developed through faith which works by love and purifies the soul.
Not loving proves not knowing God, for God is love, and knowing God is inseparable from loving. Those who truly love God must manifest lovingkindness of heart, judgment, and righteousness to all, representing Christ as His agents in sanctified association in which Christ lives and works in them, with no evil-speaking and evil-thinking which ruin the soul. Loving one another in deed and in truth, as Christ loved, proves belonging to the truth, shows God dwells within and His love is perfected, and gives assurance of dwelling in Him by His Spirit. No one who does not love his brother whom he has seen can love God whom He has not seen, so claiming to love God while hating a brother is lying, and God commands that he who loves God love his brother also. Cain is the opposite pattern, being of the wicked one and slaying his brother because his own works were evil and disobedient and his brother's were righteous, moved by jealousy and wrath that his brother's offering was accepted while his own was rejected, a jealousy cruel as death that true love never shows.
This knowing is sanctified knowledge, and love is the key of knowledge. Contrition and faith and love enable the soul to receive wisdom from heaven, and faith working by love opens the teaching of Scripture in new light so that Christ's words are seen as full of freshness and truth and beauty and His voice is recognized, while an unbelieving spirit that comes only to criticize and judge closes the door to the most precious opportunities. Through love human beings bear a right relation to God and to each other, with truth in its exalted, holy character and the moral law exalted as the elevated standard of righteousness. Even with little theology, cherishing Christ's principles and becoming a blessing through the influence of the divine Spirit marks God's children, including among the heathen those who cherish kindness, befriend sufferers at peril to their own lives before hearing the words of life, worship God ignorantly, hear His voice in nature, and do what the law requires, whose works prove the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts and who will be commended in the judgment. The knowledge of God's love is received and can be shared with others, and those who teach it must themselves have a real religious experience. Love fulfills God's law by loving God supremely and neighbor as self, honors God, and brings peace and goodwill.
Love and purity are the attributes most appreciated by the heavenly Father and the crucified, risen, and ascended Saviour. Love out of a pure heart, charity out of a pure heart, is the quality Christ values most in people and the fruit produced by a Christian life and borne upon the Christian tree. Love marked by patience and kindness reflects God's love and is prized in Christ's representatives, a quality God prizes that every Christian should cherish alongside purity. Loving one another causes God to dwell within and perfects His love within, for God is love and he who dwells in love dwells in God and God in him. He who loves God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself fulfills the entire law, which is glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men, requiring paying no attention to insult or depreciation, going forward in duty, having generous sympathy for all who have made and are still making mistakes, making straight paths for one's own feet, and having a tender, humble, sympathetic, pitying heart, which is not weakness to be ashamed of but strength derived from Christ.
God's Love in Christ
Love was made visible when God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that people might live through Him and be rescued from sin. That sending is the proof that love comes from God and the reason His beloved people are to love one another constantly. Loving others in this way is evidence of being born of God and knowing Him, for knowing God cannot be separated from loving.
He loved first, and the initiative did not begin with human love for God but with His love for humanity in sending His Son to atone as the propitiation for sins. He loved needy sinners not because they were attractive in character or good, but because they needed a Saviour and Redeemer to rescue them from Satan, to whom they were sold through belief of the first parents in his lie. By that love He purchased the gift of everlasting life for them at infinite cost.
Sins are forgiven only by accepting the provision thus made, and no one who acts out the character of Satan can be regarded as worthy to be chosen as Christ's jewels; to be His, people must be good and do good. Those who continue in the service of God return to whole-hearted obedience by depending on the merits of a crucified Saviour and trusting in His atonement for salvation. Christ formed within them is righteousness and truth, and the pure, fervent love that is of God, begotten by the love of God with which they are imbued, brings forgiveness of transgressions, pardon of sins, and God's look of pleasure upon them.
Because God so loved, believers ought also to love one another. That debt of love extends even to laying down their lives for the brethren, as He laid down His life.
Character of True Love
Real love is unselfish and disinterested, not seeking what is agreeable or profitable and not looking only on its own things while closing the eyes to the interests of others. It loses sight of self, pleasure, convenience and advantage, centers in God, and seeks the welfare and highest good of others because they have been redeemed by Christ's blood. Disinterested liberality therefore shares abundance to help struggling enterprises live and prosper, and success increases in proportion as this unselfish love is exercised. This love is the living principle of brotherhood implanted by the Holy Spirit, leaving no hiding place for selfishness and bringing heaven's order, harmony, wisdom, mercy, refinement, noble principle, heavenly courtesy and charity into every family, church and institution. Its presence brings moral transformation fitting people for the society of heaven, since selfish, rough, unkind and self-exalting persons will not compose God's family unless changed to be meek, sincere and simple as a little child.
The love required is as broad and full as Christ's love, loving others as He loved even to laying down life. Keeping God's commandments abides in that love, and it never compromises with sin, refusing jealousy cruel as death like Cain and bringing the best offering in the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Practicing this love brings peace and quietness and ennobles and uplifts the whole person, while neglecting it prevents perfection of Christlike character.
It is not in word and tongue only but in deed and truth, shown in practical care such as helping a needy brother, doing good and nothing else. A profession of faith means nothing unless Christ is revealed in righteous actions, and a loveless life is incompatible with knowing God. God values the love behind a deed more than its size, so that even a small act done in love is fruitful. Loving one another in this way proves belonging to the truth, shows God dwells within with His love perfected, and gives assurance of dwelling in Him by His Spirit.
It is tender, thoughtful, self-denying, pitiful, courteous and sympathetic, expressed in kind, tender, sympathetic words, cheerful talk of faith, and unselfish words and deeds that kindle love in other hearts. It shows forbearing, courteous, Christlike spirit even when views differ, not crowding and pushing others because they do not see alike but respecting the rights of brethren, especially by those in responsibility who must be an example worthy of imitation. It thinks well and speaks well of brethren, thinks no evil, hopes and believes all good rather than evil or false reports, and dwells on what is pure, lovely and of good report. Harshness, accusation, evil-speaking and evil-thinking are of the devil and are never borne on the Christian tree. Educators must therefore let this love overcome selfishness and harshness, taking youth as they are, bearing patiently with ignorance, dealing tenderly with the sensitive and nervous, faithfully correcting wrong so as to bind the reproved still closer, joining exact impartial justice and firmness with mercy, bearing with perversity and rebellion without love growing cold, and standing with open arms to welcome the erring rather than standing aloof, indifferent, unapproachable, harsh and censorious.
It forbids hatred, treasured grievances, false assumptions, dwelling on defects and mistakes, suspicion and doubt, jealousy and imagined slights, unkind criticism, zeal to condemn, strictness over outward ceremonies, exactness over theory, fault-finding, and biting and devouring one another. A spirit of hatred must decidedly change for a person to stand acquitted before God, and holding such sentiments brings present and eternal injury. Such looking for defects, dwelling on mistakes, forgetting one's own errors and losing sight of the Saviour and His great love for sinners shuts the love of God out of the heart, takes away happiness and joy without the loss being realized, and leaves believers walking in darkness. Cherishing instead tenderness and loving confidence toward brethren discourages jealousy and helps bring a loving response. The requirement is to hide in humility, meekness and lowliness, conform to the divine Pattern, do the work given irrespective of what others think or do, not look at the mistakes of brethren, keep self out of sight, sense personal weakness, trust God with invincible faith, crave His grace to do what is right and pure and true, and strive to preserve unity and harmony.
It is benevolence and tender sympathy and love for souls seeking to save the lost. It is the life and very essence of Christianity, not merely part of character but the character itself, flowing from connection with Christ like nourishment from the parent stock. Those who have this mind and spirit carry out His design in service as channels of light, disciplined and trained by the Holy Spirit and working with heavenly agencies as co-laborers with God to win souls from error and sin to truth and holiness, using words and abilities in His service. Received into the heart as an active power for good, it quickens the faculties of mind and powers of soul, enlarges capacity for feeling and loving, leads to loving all the children of God with respectful demeanor and considerate courtesy that wins confidence, and where it pervades institutions without dissimulation they become a representation of heaven on earth and a perpetual testimony of what sanctifying truth can do. Since every person desires this love exercised toward himself, he is called to reveal the same spirit toward others, and the love of Jesus must pervade the hearts of those who would serve Him. True affection must be encouraged and expressed especially in childhood rather than discouraged and repressed, for repressing it stifles the better nature and makes hard-hearted men and women whose cold selfishness unless melted by divine love will ruin happiness forever, while encouraging generous, loving impulses gives children the tender spirit of Jesus and the sympathy angels manifest.
He who loves God with all heart, might, mind and strength and his neighbor as himself fulfills the entire law on which hang all the law and the prophets. Its manifestation is glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill toward men. This highest standard is expressed in meekness and lowliness of heart, paying no attention to insult or depreciation, going forward in duty, having generous sympathy for all who have made and are still making mistakes, making straight paths for one's feet, and having a tender, humble, sympathetic, pitying heart which is not weakness to be ashamed of but strength derived from Christ. The Holy Spirit and the Word agree and the Word must be acted out, producing divine unity and universal brotherhood with order and harmony, without setting aside divine wisdom, while truth and righteousness prevail.
Fruit and Witness of Love
Though no one has ever seen God, loving one another brings God to dwell within and brings His love to completion, which is known because He has given of His Spirit, so that remaining in love is remaining in God and God in him. This completed love gives confidence for the day of judgment because as He is so are believers in this world, and loving in deed and in truth as Christ loved proves belonging to the truth and gives assurance of dwelling in Him. Those who truly love must show lovingkindness of heart, judgment, and righteousness to all as His agents in sanctified association in which Christ lives and works, laying down life for the brethren and helping a needy brother not in word and tongue only but in deed and truth. Fulfilling the entire law by loving God with all the heart and neighbor as self brings glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill toward men, requiring no attention to insult, generous sympathy for those who make mistakes, straight paths, and a tender, humble, sympathetic, pitying heart that is strength derived from Christ and not weakness.
Christ's love in the heart works like leaven with life-giving power to bring all of mind and soul and strength into complete harmony with the divine life, defining religious obligation, genuine experience, and sanctification through the truth with conduct fashioned after the divine Pattern. In loving one another as Christ loved, the soul receives sanctification and obtains faith which works by love and purifies the soul, implanting a new nature in which grace is more and more developed. Divine grace renews the heart and makes love its guiding principle, shaping character, governing impulses and passions, subduing enmity, ennobling affection, and sweetening life, received as an active power for good that quickens faculties of mind and powers of soul and enlarges capacity for feeling and for loving. He who loves God supremely will love all the children of God with respectful demeanor and considerate courtesy that wins confidence, and where this unfeigned love pervades institutions they become a representation of heaven on earth and a perpetual testimony of what sanctifying truth can do when practiced.
Love binds together all members of the heavenly family, and wherever it is made manifest in love to one another the divine relationship is revealed. That love appears as the spirit of peace in peacemakers, surrounding them with the fragrance of Christ and a pure atmosphere, so that loveliness of character and holy life tells the world they are God's children, have been with Jesus, and are connected with heaven. A heart at peace with God is filled with love rather than envy, hatred, or strife and spreads peace to others, whether by revealing Christ through a holy life or by leading others to turn from sin and yield to God. Love for God's people draws hearts together in words and thoughtful, courteous actions at home and in the church, producing divine unity and universal brotherhood with order and harmony while truth and righteousness prevail, and it requires striving in humility to preserve unity, keeping self out of sight, sensing personal weakness, trusting God with invincible faith, and craving His grace to do what is right and pure and true.
This mutual love is the testimony to the world that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, made clear after His suffering, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Keeping it proves faith is exerting a sanctifying influence upon the heart, while neglecting it gives occasion to reproach faith, because the world watches believers and is quick to discern every defect in life and every inconsistency in action. Cheerful, holy effort to keep the unity of the faith and a life of kindly, tender, sympathetic words and hopeful talk of faith gives proof to the world that God sent His only begotten Son as Saviour and glorifies God by witnessing that His rich grace gives peace and joy, whereas harshness and accusation are from the devil. Such sanctified loving activity has effectual influence that molds work after heaven's order with Christ as center of all power, but when self and self-importance rule with ambition to have telling influence and all-absorbing institutional striving, Christ is expelled as not needed and lust for power walks in sparks of human kindling and not in light from the throne.
Pure love is charity in the fullest sense to be taught and practiced in daily life, an essential characteristic of followers of Jesus without which all pretensions to the Christian name are vain, doing good and nothing else. God values the love behind a deed more than its size, so even a small or humble act done in pure love is fruitful, and love must be put into action because each loving act strengthens, grows, and extends it. It overlooks little mistakes and is not quick to mark small errors, seeks neither profit nor reward yet brings good, and where it exists there is truth, life, and power. It works for good, transforms people, overcomes evil and resistance, and can succeed in reforming character and guiding family conduct where argument, authority, force, many words, or money fail.
Practicing this love brings peace and quietness in the Lord and ennobles and uplifts the whole person, and love for brethren is essential to daily happiness in this life and in the life to come. Love must control all gifts with a softened, subduing spirit, for without it all gifts are worthless, and it must be cultivated as part of gaining spiritual dominion over the powers of darkness and shown in how people treat one another. Neglecting it prevents perfection of Christlike character, and when tenderness, compassion, and Christlike love are not shown the opposite character grows and leaves people in danger of losing heaven's blessing and their light.