Christ’s Love to His Spouse

Christ's Love to His Spouse

(No. 2488)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 25, 1896.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 5, 1886.

"Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." Ephesians
5:25.

THE love of Jesus–what a theme it is! The Apostle said that it passes
knowledge and if it passes knowledge, much more does it excel any
description that can be given of it! The heart may feel it better than
the tongue may speak it. If there is one subject more than another upon
which I wish always to speak, it is the love of Christ. But if there is
one which quite baffles me and makes me go back from this platform
utterly ashamed of my poor feeble words, and of the tongue which has
uttered them, it is this subject. This love of Christ is the most
amazing thing under Heaven, if not in Heaven itself. How often have I
said to you that if I had heard that Christ pitied us, I could
understand it. If I had heard that Christ had mercy upon us, I could
comprehend it. But when it is written that he actually loves us, that
is quite another and a much more extraordinary thing! Love between
mortal and mortal is quite natural and comprehensible, but love between
the Infinite God and us poor sinful finite creatures, though
conceivable in one sense, is utterly inconceivable in another. Who can
grasp such an idea? Who can fully understand it? Especially when it
comes in this form–"HE" (read it in large capitals) "loved me, and
gave Himself for me"–this is the miracle of miracles!

I feel the more embarrassed with my subject, at the very onset, because
this love of Christ is here positively likened to the love of a husband
to his wife, and is so likened to it as to be made the model of what
the husband's love to his wife should be! "Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." I
should never have dared to draw the comparison, nor should any man have
drawn it, but that the Holy Spirit, Himself, moved the pen of Paul to
write it, and this being the case, we shall not be intruding into the
secret places of the Most High if we now enter upon the consideration
of this wondrous theme! Verily, I may well say, as the Apostle does in
the 32nd verse, "This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ
and the Church." It is a mystery, a subject far too deep for the mere
intellect to dive into its depths–and too sacred for us to think or
speak of except with utmost solemnity of heart. How shall I order my
speech in the presence of such a subject as this? How shall I be free
and yet be guarded? How shall I take you to the edge of this great sea
of the Truth of God and even venture into it without getting, at once,
over my head?

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church"–a
parallel is drawn between poor mortals like ourselves who occupy the
position of husbands and our glorious Lord who is God Over All, blessed
forever! In boundless condescension He deigns to occupy the same kind
of place in reference to His Church, which He calls His bride, He
Himself, being the Bridegroom who is soon to come! Again I say that I
should never have thought of such a comparison had not the Holy Spirit,
Himself, put it before us and invited us to consider it.

So, dear Friends, with great reverence, let us think, first, of how
Christ loves the Church. Then, secondly, how He has proved His love by
giving Himself for the Church. And then, thirdly, let us make the
practical enquiry, how shall we think of this wondrous love of Christ?

I. First, then, HOW DOES CHRIST LOVE HIS CHURCH?

I cannot help beginning by saying that Christ loves His church
specially. There would be no parallel whatever between the husband's
love to the wife and Christ's love to the Church if there were not a
specialty about it. Christ is Love itself–He is full of kindness and
benevolence. In that sense, He loves allmankind, but that cannotbe the
meaning of the text, for it would be a very strange kind of exhortation
to the husband if that were the case. No, the husband's love to his
spouse is something special and particular–and it stands quite alone
and all by itself. He will be kind and benevolent and generous towards
all others, but that love which he lavishes upon his wife he must give
to nobody else in the world. It is certainly so with our blessed Lord.
Free and rich and overflowing in loving kindness, yet He made a special
choice of His people before the earth was. And having chosen because of
His love, He loves because of His choice, and that love is a peculiar,
special, remarkable, pre-eminent love such as He bestows upon no one
else of all the human race! It must be so, or else the passage would be
all but immoral! Certainly it would be manifestly incorrect.

There is, then, a special love which Christ has towards His own Church,
towards all Believers, towards His chosen people, towards those whom
His Father gave Him, of whom He says, "They are Mine." I may invite
each of you who are included in either of these descriptions to drink
in the sweetness of that gracious text, "I have loved you with an
everlasting love." That means, "I have loved you with a special and
peculiar and distinguishing love." As many of us as believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ are distinguished by the enjoyment of a love which is all
our own! Dear fellow Christians, let us never forget this amazing love
and, as Christ loves us so specially, let us feel that we are bound to
love Him specially. Let us give to Him all our heart's selection, for
He is a jealous Savior and He will have all our love. So let us render
it to Him, not of compulsion, but with a joyous willingness! Love dies
in the presence of compulsion–it will wear no chains except its own
silken fetters. But it flies, oh, how swiftly, on its own strong wings
when once it perceives its beloved objective. Christ loves His church,
then, specially, as good John Kent sings–

"He loved the world of His elect,

With love surpassing thought

Nor will His mercy ever neglect

The souls so dearly bought."

And, next, I ask you to notice what is not always the case with regard
to the husband and the wife, that the Lord Jesus loves His church
unselfishly. That is to say, He never loved her for what she has, but
what she is. No, I must go further than that and say that He loved her,
not so much for what she is, but what He makes her as the object of His
love. He loves her not for what comes to Him from her, or with her, but
for what He is able to bestow upon her! His is the strongest love that
ever was, for He has loved unseemliness till He has changed it into
beauty! He has loved the sinner till He has made him a saint. He has
loved the foul and filthy till He has washed them with water by the
Word of God and presented them to Himself without spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing. We love because of loveliness apprehended and
perceived, but Christ loved because He would impart His own loveliness
to the object of His choice. Even the best of men, doubtless, love in
some measure from selfish motives. There is some mixture of
self-interest in all human love, but Christ had nothing to gain by
loving His Church. He was very God of very God, the adored of angels
and the Beloved of the Father, yet He fixed the eyes of His love–mark
you, not of His pity, merely, but of His love–upon those whom He had
chosen out of the race of men! He loved them, not for anything that He
could ever gain from them, for He had all things in Himself, but
because of what He would impart to them! They had nothing of good in
themselves and were only fit to be loved by Christ because, like empty
vessels, their very emptiness fits them to be receivers of His
fullness. In no other sense are we ever fit to be loved by Christ. As
the sun chased the darkness away from the world and still prevents it
from going back into the darkness, so did Christ love a poor, fallen,
darkened company of mortals, and loved them into light, and love, and
joy, and still loves and enlightens them and keeps them where they are.
Oh, what a wondrous love is this! Let our souls rejoice and be glad
therein.

Further, Brothers and Sisters, as Christ's love to His Church is a love
of choice, and of specialty, and of marvelous unselfishness, so I
believe–although I do not understand how it can be so–that it is a
love of complacency. The husband's love to his wife is not the love of
a parent to a child. It is not the love of the philanthropist to the
object of distress that he relieves. It is something very different
from either of these forms of love. It may be that the husband confers
benefits upon his wife as the result of his love, and he should do so.
But still, the love of the husband to the wife puts them somehow on a
level with one another. She has complacency in him and he has
complacent delight in her. If a husband only loved his wife with a
feeling of pity towards her, with the notion of relieving her, and so
forth, that would be a very poor kind of relationship!

And though I speak with bated breath as I say it, I believe that the
blessed Lord Christ takes complacency in His people. That we should
delight ourselves in Him, is very easy to understand, but that He
should delight Himself in us, oh, the very thought of it is ravishing
to my heart! Even in the Old Testament Scripture, our Lord said to His
chosen, "You shall be called Hephzibah," that is, "My delight is in
her." Is it really so, that the infinite God takes delight in His
chosen people? Here is another passage to confirm it–"My delights were
with the sons of men." Does Jesus find delight in men? Yes, that He
does, and you know how He said to those who were the representatives of
His church in His lifetime on earth, "I have called you friends," and
He did seem to find a solace in their company. Even when He had risen
from the dead and had no more work to do for their redemption, yet He
came to them that He might enjoy their society. Poor, fallible,
half-instructed men they were, yet He found His pleasure in them! He
used to speak of them in this way, "I will declare your name to My
brethren." He is not ashamed to call us brethren and in that rapturous
Song of Songs, which is the very Holy of Holies of our blessed Bible,
He does not hesitate to speak of His beloved as His spouse and to use
to her all those endearing terms which prove that He takes great
delight in her.

Think of it, my Soul, that Jesus takes great delight in you! He became
a Man and it was not good even for such a Man to be alone. He could not
rest till He had found you out and had wooed and won you! Will you ever
deny Him your company? Will you refuse Him your heart of hearts? Will
you hide from Him the secret of your soul? If so, you do a grievous
wrong to Him who has deigned to stoop from the Throne of His eternal
Glory to take delight in the company of His creature, man! I have
looked abroad upon creation and have seen all kinds of beautiful birds
and intelligent beasts, yet have I never seen any towards which I would
stoop to make them my intimate acquaintances–and marry them in the
heart of my love! No, we would not stoop even that little distance! But
we were infinitely below the Son of God, yet has He chosen us! He felt
that He could link His destiny with ours–I put it not too strongly,
for that is what He has really done! He has become the Head of His
body, the Church. He has become the Husband of His chosen bride. He
has, as it were, entered into the same boat with His people. He has
made a household whereof we two are the companion parts–He the Husband
and His Church the spouse. Oh, who shall tell it all out? I do but
touch the surface of this boundless sea as with a swallow's wing–happy
are you if you dare to plunge into its depths.

There is, then, between Christ and His Church, to make a parallel
between the love of the husband to his wife, a love of complacency.

And being a love of complacency, in such a case as this, there is an
intense love of sympathy. The true husband and wife are so united that
they share each other's joys and sorrows without making any effort to
do so. It comes naturally to them, they cannot avoid it. And oh, let us
tell out this great Truth of God–the sympathy between Christ and His
people is absolutely perfect! If He sees us in sorrow, He feels it in
His heart. He was Himself encompassed with infirmity, when He was here,
and tempted in all points like as we are, that He might know all the
trials of the Church He loved. And now in Heaven, as He has shared our
sorrows, He decrees that we shall share His joys! He wishes us, even
now, to let our hearts beat in sympathy with His triumph and His
victory. I wish we would do so, why should we not? Our Husband is on
the Throne–then let us begin to reign with Him! He has raised us up
together and made us sit together in the heav-enlies–then let us have
faith enough to claim what is really ours in Him! Remember that quaint
couplet of which good old Rowland Hill was so fond, and sing it
yourself–

"But this I do find, we two are so joined, He'll not be in Glory and
leave me behind." Still better, remember that Word of Power which fell
from our Lord's blessed lips while here below, "Father, I will that
they, also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am; that they
may behold My Glory." He has a perfect sympathy with us and we should
have a like sympathy with Him. Blessed be His dear name that He should
ever have entered into such bonds of love as those with such poor
creatures as we are!

Nor is that all. While it is very blessed to know that Christ has this
love of sympathy, He has, further, a love of communion. Without this,
there could be no parallel with domestic life which includes much of
happy communion and loving conversation. A brother minister said to me,
the other day, when we were talking to one another about what the
Gospel has done for men, "Did you ever think what a wonderful thing the
Gospel is, that it has made possible such happiness as you and I enjoy
in our domestic relationships?" And of course I heartily responded to
that remark, for if there is anything that is a miniature picture of
Heaven upon earth, it is a pair of Christians happily united, whose
children grow up in the fear of the Lord and render to them increased
comfort and joy every day! Oh, how much some of us owe to the Gospel
for the happiness of our homes! There could, however, be no such
happiness in married life if there were no conversation, no
communion–and our Lord Jesus Christ so loves His Church that He often
converses with her. He so loves each one of His people that if we are
only willing to have it so, we may walk with Him, we may talk with Him
and He will speak with us as a man speaks with his friend. Oh, my
Brothers and Sisters, if you do not, every day, commune with Christ,
whose fault is it? Not His, but yours, for He loves you so that He
would never let you be away from Him if you were not so wayward, and so
easily turned aside by little things. Yes, He manifests Himself to us
as He does not to the world. I am not going to tell out, here, all that
He says–all the ways in which He manifests Himself to His people, we
could not tell. But there are times of such real delight in fellowship
with the Lord Jesus that we can only say with Dr. Watts–

"My willing soul would stay In such a frame as this, And sit and sing
herself away

To everlasting bliss."

The pith of all that I have said–and I have much more to say than time
will permit–is this–it is an extraordinarily thing that Christ has
entered into positive unity with His people. Unity, mark you for that
is the essence of the marriage bond. We are one with Christ, who made
Himself one with His people. Have you ever realized this, even you who
are the best-tutored of the children of God? Have you ever taken a firm
hold of this great Truth of God and gripped it so that you will not let
it go? Come back to what I said a little while ago, that Christ has
linked His destiny with yours, His honor with yours, His life with
yours, His happiness with yours! You must be in Heaven, or else He will
be bereaved! You must be in Heaven, or else He will be imperfect! You
are a member of His body and if He should lose one of His members, then
His body would not be perfect, nor the Head either! You are joined to
the Lord and you are "one spirit" with Him, and you may bravely say,
"Who shall separate us?" for such is this eternal union that there is
no separation between Christ and the soul that is joined to Him.

"The Lord, the God of Israel, says that He hates putting away." In the
olden times, the husband might give his wife a letter of divorce and
put her away. But God says that He hates putting away and He will never
divorce those who are joined to Him. What a marriage this is! Do you
know, dear Friend, what I am talking about? I cannot speak of it as I
would, but it is true, and that is the wonder of it! It is no fiction,
no myth, no mere figure of speech, but it is reallyso in deed and in
truth. For this cause Christ left His Father and became one with His
Church, that henceforth they should no more be two, but one. And now we
who have believed in Christ Jesus are one with Him in time and to
eternity! His love has made it so and we may paraphrase the words we
read, just now, and say, "Behold, what manner of love the Bridegroom
has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the spouse of Christ!"

I have but very imperfectly spoken upon this part of my subject, but I
must not linger longer on this most delightful theme.

II. I now ask you briefly to notice HOW THE LORD JESUS PROVED HIS LOVE
TO HIS CHURCH–"Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it."

I will not at first restrict the meaning of this text to what is the
real essence of it, but I will just observe that Christ gave Himself
for His church when He was born into the world, when He did not disdain
the virgin's womb, but was born of Mary, wrapped in swaddling bands and
laid in a manger. The angels have never ceased to wonder at this great
mystery of godliness! The God who made the heavens and the earth, the
God who upholds all things by the word of His power, lay as an Infant
in the manger of Bethlehem because there could be no manifestation of
His love to His people unless it could be said that they two were one
flesh! So He became bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, most
surely and truly Man, with all the sinless infirmities of our nature,
and liable even to death in order to be fully one with us. Oh, how
really He gave Himself for us when He thus became a Babe, a Child, a
Man!

That being done, He gave all His life here on earth for us. He did
nothing for Himself–it was all for us, for His Church. His whole life
was for her righteousness, for her example, for her teaching and for
her quickening. He loved her with no view but the Glory of the Father
by the salvation of His chosen.

Nor was that all. It was, indeed, but the beginning! Having given His
Godhead by the assumption of our humanity, having given His life by
spending it all for us, Christ gave Himself up to death for our sins.
He went up to the felon's gallows–the Cross of Calvary–and there He
gave His hands and feet to the nails, and His heart to the spear.
Laying down His body for us, but at the same time laying down His soul
and spirit, He suffered that dread doom of being forsaken of His God,
so that He cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" There,
when you see His pale body, like a withered lily broken at the
stalk–when you see the holy men and women wrapping Him in spices and
laying Him in Joseph's tomb–you understand how He loved us and gave
Himself for us, dying in our place, a Propitiation and Atonement for
our sins! He loved us so as to die for us! He could not have died had
He not become Man, but being found in fashion as a Man, and partaking
of our human nature, it was possible for Him to prove the utmost extent
of His love by laying down His life for us. Oh, could you not kiss
those dear cold feet? Do you not half wish that you could have been
there to wrap Him in the spices and fine linen and to lay Him in the
grave? But remember that He now lives! Our heavenly Lover lives! He has
proved His love by giving up His life, but now He has His life back and
He has gone Home to His Father–He has gone back to the royalties He
left and put on, again, all the splendor which for a while He laid
aside.

Yet He does not love us any the less, for He still gives Himself for
us. He acts the part of Intercessor for His Church. For Zion's sake He
does not hold His peace. And for Jerusalem's sake He does not rest. Nor
will He–He is crowned that His Church may be crowned. He is enthroned
that she, too, may come to the Throne and He will further prove His
love, by-and-by, for He has so given Himself for us that He is bound to
come again–to fetch Home His affianced when she is prepared for Him
and Heaven above is prepared for her! Then shall He come in all His
Glory and she shall be brought to Him in raiment of needlework, in all
the splendor of His righteousness and forever and ever shall there be
nothing but joy and blessedness!

What I am driving at, and what I want every Christian here to get at,
is this thought. Whatever Jesus Christ is–and you do not know half of
what He is, even you who know most of Him–whatever Christ is in any
relationship, or from any point of view, He has given Himself to us!
Not merely has He given His thoughts, His actions, His wisdom, His
power and His wealth but He has given Himself to us. Oh, I like to
think of this! All that I can imagine Christ to be must still fall far
short of Himself! It is Himself that we love and I would sooner have
Christ than have Heaven! It is Himself we love and I would sooner have
Christ than His crown! It is Himself we love and I would sooner have
Christ than all the golden streets! It is Himself that we love and it
is Himself that belongs to us–not merely the sight of His eyes, but
His eyes themselves! Not only the love of His heart, but His heart
itself! Himself, His Godhead and His Manhood, the complex Person of the
Christ of God is given to His Church!

I feel as if I do not know how to talk at all about this great Truth of
God. Some Brother cried out this morning when I was speaking, and I
noticed that somebody else immediately followed him. But oh, if ever
there is a time for crying out–and yet, on the other hand, if ever
there is a time for being struck with silence–it is when we get on
this topic of Christ's love to His people! I feel as if I need to run
from this platform and go home–and shut the door and sit down– and
weep to the praise of this mighty love! And then I should want to get
up and run back, again, and say, "What a fool I was not to tell you all
I could about it!" May God the Holy Spirit help you to realize it! That
you are loved by anyone is a joy, for love is a precious thing, whoever
gives it. But you, Believer, are loved by Christ! You are so loved by
Christ as not merely to be espoused to Him, but united to Him in
eternal wedlock! You are joined to Him in such a way that you must,
by-and-by, be with Him in all the Glory of His royal estate, for the
King will bring His queen home and He will bring you home to dwell with
Him forever and ever! I am very sorry for those who do not know
anything about this great love! I am truly sorry for you outsiders–

"His worth, if all the nations knew, Surely the whole world would love
Him too!" If they did but imagine the sweetness of the love of Christ,
they would never give rest to their eyes until they had looked to Him
by faith and so had learned it, and known it for themselves!

III. Now, lastly, dear Friends, if such is the love of Jesus, and the
way in which He has proved it, HOW OUGHT WE TO THINK OF IT? I hardly
need suggest to God's people anything about this, for you know it
already, your own hearts have outrun my words.

How should we think of the love of Christ? Why, with deepest gratitude.
Oh, how could You love me, my Lord, You whose eyes outshine the light
of the morning? How could You love me, You who can make the fairest of
all things with a wish of Your heart? How could You love me in whom
there was nothing fair, nothing worthy of Your love? Yet I do bless You
for it. Do not all of you who love Him say in your hearts, "Bless the
Lord, O my Soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name, that
ever He should love me"? It is not His benefits that you have to think
of just now, though they are innumerable. It is not His mercies that
you have to think of at this moment, though they are immeasurable. But
it is that He has loved you and that He still loves you, and that He
has given Himself to you and for you! That is the point. Do you not
bless Him? Do you not feel as if you could lie at His feet, ah, and
love the very dust He trod upon, when you think that ever He should
love you? Very well, then, return to Him your gratitude.

But that is not half enough. The next thing is, render to Him your
obedience. Does not the Scripture say that the wife is to be obedient
to her husband? Well, in this case, shall we not prove our gratitude to
Christ by a complete obedience to Him? Is there anything that He
commands you to do? Can you neglect it after such love as this? The
least of His ordinances, will you not observe them? The smallest of His
precepts, will you not regard them? Is there a word of His lips that
you dare despise? Is there a wish that He has expressed in the
Scriptures that you would fail to carry out? I hope not! Such love as
Christ has given to us ought to receive from us, without any
exhortation, a complete and perfect obedience even to every jot and
tittle as far as we can render it. I do not understand that love to
Christ which makes men pick and choose and say, "I shall not attend to
that, for that is non-essential. I shall do this–I believe that it is
wrong, but still, I daresay it does not matter much." No, no, no! True
wives act not so to their husbands! There is no wish of a loving
husband which a loving wife would not regard. No, more–she
anticipateshis wishes, she delights to make him happy–and so should it
be with my heart towards my Lord. I should be looking out for what I
can do for Him. I should be hunting high and low to find something that
would give Him pleasure and, above all, since He says, "If you love Me,
keep My commandments," my heart should answer, "Your commandments are
not grievous. It is my delight to do Your will, O my God and my
Savior." That is the spirit in which to act towards Christ.

Once more. There is a text which says, "Let the wife see that she
reverence her husband." I have sometimes thought that must be somewhat
difficult for some wives to do. There has not been very much to
reverence in their husbands. Still, they are bound to do it as far as
it is possible. In this case, there is everythingto reverence in our
Beloved! There is noth-ingabout Him but deserves our most profound
homage. Such an One as He, whose very name has music in it, whose very
Person is the delight of seraphim and cherubim–He, the Christ whom
none can conceive of in all His fullness but the Father–we must
reverence Him and bow before Him and extol Him!

I grow angry, I confess it, when I hear some men speak of Christ. They
talk of my Lord in these days as if He were some common person and they
have "comparative religions" in which they compare Him with I know not
whom! I love my Lord so well that I must boil over with indignation
when His name is disparaged. Our hymn says–

"Stand up, stand up for Jesus." It is almost too commonplace an
expression in reference to Him! Still, what it means let us do. Let us
be ready, like the armed men who were about the bed of Solomon, to
defend our King against all comers, for, if He loved us so much, we
must love Him in return.

And what else shall we say? If such is the love of Christ, how shall we
think of it but in a way of holiness? Let us seek to be like He is. Let
us try to fulfill His will that He may purify us and sanctify us by the
washing of water by the Word, that we may be holy as He who has called
us is holy. Let us think of this love by striving after sanctification
and let us think of this love, above all, by rendering to Him, now, and
as long as we live, the full love of our heart. We cannot love Him
without being moved to love Him more. We can love the more by thinking
much of the Person towards whom our hearts are drawn, so think much of
my Lord, think of Him every day! Get to be familiar with Him. Read
frequently the story of His life and death. Get alone as often as you
can and picture Him before your eyes until you find your heart
exclaiming, "I love You, dearest Lord. You know all things. You know
that I love You." I find it a profitable form of devotion, sometimes,
to sit quite still and not say a word, but just thinkof Him. My heart
has burned within me while doing that and I believe that it is not lost
or wasted time, but time most profitably spent, for I come forth from
my chamber and feel, "Now I am ready for the service of life–or for
its suffering–for I have seen the Well-Beloved and the glances of His
countenance have charmed away my grief and prepared me to take up my
cross and follow Him wherever He goes." Oh, love the Lord, you His
saints and, as long as you live, love Him more and more, love Him to
the very utmost, till you die of love! Blessed, forever blessed be His
holy name! Amen and Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 JOHN 3.

I have read this chapter many times in your hearing, but we cannot read
it too often, for it is full of the deepest and most important
instruction. God grant that fresh light from above may shine upon it as
we listen once more to the familiar words!

Verse 1. Behold–If you never used your eyes to good purpose before,
use them so now!

1. What manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God. Let the truth of our adoption amaze us–the
adoption of such unworthy ones as we were to so high a
relationship–"that we should be called the sons of God."

1. Therefore the world us knows not, because it knew Him not. There is
no need to say to whom this last sentence refers. The pronoun, "Him,"
is quite sufficient to indicate our Lord Jesus whom the world knew not.
Every living, loving heart must at once have thought of, "Him," who is
the chief, the First-Born, the only-begotten Son of God!

2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God.–It is enough to make the lame
man leap as a hart to hear that blessed statement and to know it to be
true!

2. And it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when
He shall appear, we shall be like He; for we shall see Him as He is. In
proportion to our view of Christ is our likeness to Him. Those who
never saw Him are not like He is at all. Those who have, in a measure,
seen Him, are in a measure like He is, they who see Him as He is are
like He is. There is a transforming power about the image of Christ
when it is seen by the soul–"We shall be like He; for we shall see Him
as He is."

3. And every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He
is pure. Discouragement and despair will not purify you. Doubt and
darkness will only make you worse than you were before. But the
indulgence of this blessed hope that you are to be like Christ will
help you to purify yourself, "even as He is pure." Therefore, Beloved,
have hope in God! Remember that it is one of Satan's tricks and snares
to try to discourage you, but it is God's will to increase your hope,
for thereby you increase in purity.

4. Whoever commits sin, transgresses, also, the Law: for sin is the
transgression of the Law. This is the best definition of sin that can
be given–let none of us ever tolerate any other idea of sin but that
it is "the transgression of the Law of God."

5. 6. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in
Him is no sin. Whoever abides in Him sins not: whoever sins has not
seen Him, neither known Him. That is to say, if sin is the habitual
course of our life, we do not truly know the Lord. He who walks with
God endeavors with all his might to be free from sin and he is
sanctified by abiding in Christ.

7. Little children, let no man deceive you Because you are little, you
are apt to be deceived. There is a great blessedness in being little
children, but there is also some danger connected with such a
condition, so we must beware of those who would deceive us.

7. He that does righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.
The test of a man's real character must be what he does, not what he
professes! Not what he boasts of, but what is really the manner of his
life.

8, 9. He that commits sin is ofthe devil; for the devilsins from the
beginning. For thispurpose the Son ofGod was manifested, that He might
destroy the works ofthe devil Whoever is born ofGod does not commit
sin; for His seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born
ofGod. He sins not with any pleasure, it is not the course of his life.
There are, alas, in the best of men, infirmities and imperfections and
failures! Would God these were all removed! Still, the man is not what
he used to be, Though he is not what he shallbe, he is not what he once
was.

10. In this the children ofGod are manifest, and the children ofthe
devil: whoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that
loves not his brother. Holiness and love are the marks of the true
child of God. And where these are not to be found, a man must not
bolster himself up with any notion that salvation is his, for he is no
child of God.

11, 12. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that
we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that Wicked One,
and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his own works
were evil and his brother's righteous. So that, when you see a man
filled with hate and envy and malice, it is because his own life is not
holy. There is no exception to this rule–true holiness and love always
go together–where love is absent, holiness must be absent, too.

13. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. See, Cain hated
Abel and the world hates the saints. It is the very nature and spirit
of the world to hate those who are not of the world.

14. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the
brethren. Love becomes the distinguishing mark of the new life.

14. He that loves not his brother abides in death. No matter though he
may be outwardly religious, and may think that by doing certain
external actions he will save himself, there is no truth at all in his
religion, for the very essence of true religion is that a man lives not
to himself, but to God and for the good of his fellow men.

15. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. He would get rid of that
brother if he could and he is, therefore, a murderer in spirit, for the
essence of murder is not the dagger or the poison, but the desireto put
out of existence or to do the utmost harm to the one who is hated. The
essential element of murder lurks within the bosom of all hatred.

15. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. His
action is Cain-like. He is not of the chosen seed. He has not the life
of God abiding in him.

16. Hereby perceive we the love of God.–The master love, the chief
love that was ever in this world–

16-19. Because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down
our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's good, andsees
his brother has need, andshuts up his heart of compassion from him, how
dwells the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in
word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know
that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. That
is still the test–truthful love proves that "we are of the truth."
Children of the God of Truth and so assures and tranquillizes our
hearts before Him. Our hearts shall be calm, confident and happy before
God when we know that true love flows within them.

20-23. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and
knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we
confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive of Him because
we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His
sight. And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name
of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us
commandment. Faith works by love. We believe on the name of the Lord
Jesus, God's well-beloved and only-begotten Son and that faith leads us
to love all who bear His holy name.

24. And He that keeps His commandments dwells in Him, and He in him.
And hereby we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has
given us. If He has given us the Spirit of Christ, then Christ Himself
is in us! If He has given us the Spirit of love, that also is the
evidence that Christ, Himself, abides in us. Oh, for more of that
blessed Spirit in every one of us!