Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.
Grace is God's undeserved favor resting on and promised to everyone who loves the Lord Jesus Christ with genuine love. The word for sincerity means incorruption, so the love required is pure, unmixed, and enduring, of the kind that belongs to an incorruptible character received only through faith in Christ. Such love is not passing religious excitement or strong feeling, but a steadfast devotion that owns Christ openly even when His cause is despised and serves Him in the poor, afflicted, imprisoned, orphaned, and widowed. Those who love Him in this incorruptible way will at His coming receive immortality as God's seal upon a character that has endured testing and overcome. This sincere love also binds His people together, marking the true church and moving them to love Christians of every name, submit to one another, and seek unity now in preparation for dwelling together forever.
Sincerity and True Love
The closing word is the Greek aphtharsia, translated here as sincerity. Elsewhere the same word is rendered incorruption and uncorruptness, also incorruptness and immortality, and by implication incorruptibility. The revision gives it as incorruptness, bringing out that the love for the Lord Jesus Christ is to be uncorrupted and genuine.
The love to be borne to him is to have this incorruptible quality. It is pure, with no element of alloy. Such incorruptible character belongs to faith in Christ and can be given only through faith in him.
Sincere love is not warm party excitement that merely follows others and makes his cause the fashion of the day. It is loving him when his garb is mean. It is openly owning fellowship with him without shrinking, and owning him without shame though his injured name is marked by slander.
It means loving Jesus in the blind, the halt and the maimed, succoring him in prison, loving him in the orphan's claim, and welcoming the widow in his name. Each poor and afflicted member wears his image. To leave them unvalued and unowned is to be dead to the body, without life in Christ the living Head and dissevered from the living Vine, without divine life.
The blessing of grace rests on all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in this sincere way. It is sincere love, rather than intense religious feelings or emotional experiences, that marks those to whom it is addressed.
Grace, Holiness and Immortality
Grace is God's undeserved favor, with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and promised to them. It sustains believers from the beginning and continues with them throughout life. Its riches and glory will be yielded and enjoyed for all eternity. The connection of grace with all sincere lovers of the Lord includes the call to pray and work for the full realization of unity among Christ's people.
Loving the Lord in sincerity is to love Him with incorruption, and this incorruptible love is connected with receiving immortality. At Christ's coming immortality will be given to those who remain faithful to the end. It is God's stamp upon an incorruptible character that has endured Satan's tests. That character has conquered through the power of the endless life given by Christ.
The verse belongs to Ephesians 6, which teaches holiness in conduct toward God, toward Christ, toward man, toward sin, toward self, toward divine things, and toward the unseen world. That chapter is to be studied together with other holiness Scriptures. Together they serve as the guide to understanding and practicing holiness.
Belonging and Christian Unity
The church is made up of those who love Jesus Christ sincerely, not of all the inhabitants of a country simply because of a national or political establishment. Sincere love for the Lord Jesus marks belonging to God, for the one who loves God also loves those born of God, rejoices in God the Saviour, is joined to the Lord as one spirit, and clings to Christ, choosing Him as altogether lovely and saying, My Beloved is mine, and I am His. Those who so love the Lord Jesus Christ belong together in grace, and they are to receive love and the prayer that the God of peace will sanctify them to His glory.
This love is directed toward people, so that Christians of every denomination, the brotherhood, and all mankind are to be loved, yet loving them does not require approving their conduct, opinions, or religious methods when these are judged wrong. Christ's brethren are those who love the Lord Jesus Christ sincerely, and they show loyalty to their coming King by submitting to one another and learning to live in unity now in preparation for living together eternally in His kingdom. Sincere lovers of Jesus and His church are therefore to pray and work for the full realization of unity among Christ's people, since grace is with all who love the Lord Jesus sincerely.
Sincere love for the Lord is unlike service driven by desire for promotion, for those who love Him sincerely prefer the humblest place in God's house to the highest status gained through serving sin, self, and the world. Such sincere love for the Lord Jesus Christ is seen in workers whose care for others is expressed as physicians, nurses, cooks, and helpers.
Grace is God's undeserved favor resting on and promised to everyone who loves the Lord Jesus Christ with genuine love. The word for sincerity means incorruption, so the love required is pure, unmixed, and enduring, of the kind that belongs to an incorruptible character received only through faith in Christ. Such love is not passing religious excitement or strong feeling, but a steadfast devotion that owns Christ openly even when His cause is despised and serves Him in the poor, afflicted, imprisoned, orphaned, and widowed. Those who love Him in this incorruptible way will at His coming receive immortality as God's seal upon a character that has endured testing and overcome. This sincere love also binds His people together, marking the true church and moving them to love Christians of every name, submit to one another, and seek unity now in preparation for dwelling together forever.
Sincerity and True Love
The closing word is the Greek aphtharsia, translated here as sincerity. Elsewhere the same word is rendered incorruption and uncorruptness, also incorruptness and immortality, and by implication incorruptibility. The revision gives it as incorruptness, bringing out that the love for the Lord Jesus Christ is to be uncorrupted and genuine.
The love to be borne to him is to have this incorruptible quality. It is pure, with no element of alloy. Such incorruptible character belongs to faith in Christ and can be given only through faith in him.
Sincere love is not warm party excitement that merely follows others and makes his cause the fashion of the day. It is loving him when his garb is mean. It is openly owning fellowship with him without shrinking, and owning him without shame though his injured name is marked by slander.
It means loving Jesus in the blind, the halt and the maimed, succoring him in prison, loving him in the orphan's claim, and welcoming the widow in his name. Each poor and afflicted member wears his image. To leave them unvalued and unowned is to be dead to the body, without life in Christ the living Head and dissevered from the living Vine, without divine life.
The blessing of grace rests on all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in this sincere way. It is sincere love, rather than intense religious feelings or emotional experiences, that marks those to whom it is addressed.
Grace, Holiness and Immortality
Grace is God's undeserved favor, with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and promised to them. It sustains believers from the beginning and continues with them throughout life. Its riches and glory will be yielded and enjoyed for all eternity. The connection of grace with all sincere lovers of the Lord includes the call to pray and work for the full realization of unity among Christ's people.
Loving the Lord in sincerity is to love Him with incorruption, and this incorruptible love is connected with receiving immortality. At Christ's coming immortality will be given to those who remain faithful to the end. It is God's stamp upon an incorruptible character that has endured Satan's tests. That character has conquered through the power of the endless life given by Christ.
The verse belongs to Ephesians 6, which teaches holiness in conduct toward God, toward Christ, toward man, toward sin, toward self, toward divine things, and toward the unseen world. That chapter is to be studied together with other holiness Scriptures. Together they serve as the guide to understanding and practicing holiness.
Belonging and Christian Unity
The church is made up of those who love Jesus Christ sincerely, not of all the inhabitants of a country simply because of a national or political establishment. Sincere love for the Lord Jesus marks belonging to God, for the one who loves God also loves those born of God, rejoices in God the Saviour, is joined to the Lord as one spirit, and clings to Christ, choosing Him as altogether lovely and saying, My Beloved is mine, and I am His. Those who so love the Lord Jesus Christ belong together in grace, and they are to receive love and the prayer that the God of peace will sanctify them to His glory.
This love is directed toward people, so that Christians of every denomination, the brotherhood, and all mankind are to be loved, yet loving them does not require approving their conduct, opinions, or religious methods when these are judged wrong. Christ's brethren are those who love the Lord Jesus Christ sincerely, and they show loyalty to their coming King by submitting to one another and learning to live in unity now in preparation for living together eternally in His kingdom. Sincere lovers of Jesus and His church are therefore to pray and work for the full realization of unity among Christ's people, since grace is with all who love the Lord Jesus sincerely.
Sincere love for the Lord is unlike service driven by desire for promotion, for those who love Him sincerely prefer the humblest place in God's house to the highest status gained through serving sin, self, and the world. Such sincere love for the Lord Jesus Christ is seen in workers whose care for others is expressed as physicians, nurses, cooks, and helpers.