Love’s Climax

Love's Climax

(No. 2394)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, JANUARY 6, 1895.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
JANUARY 10, 1887.

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10.

To find love, you have need send a lover–one whose soul is full of
love is the most likely to discover it. John, with love in his heart,
soars aloft and, using his eagle eyes, looks over all history and all
space and, at last, he poises himself over one spot, for he has found
that for which he was looking, and says, "Herein is love." There is
love in a thousand places, like the scattered drops of spray on the
leaves of the forest, but as for the ocean, that is in one place, and
when we reach it, we say, "Herein is water." There is love in many
places, like wandering beams of light, but as for the sun, it is in one
part of the heavens and as we look at it, we say, "Herein is light."
So, "Herein," said the Apostle, as he looked toward the Lord Jehovah,
Himself, "Herein is love." He did not point to his own heart and say,
"Herein is love," for that was but a little pool filled from the great
sea of love. He did not look at the Church of God and say of all the
myriads who counted not their lives dear unto them, "Herein is love,"
for their love was only the reflected brightness of the great sun of
love! No, he looked to God the Father, in the splendor of His
condescension in giving His only Son to die for us, and he said "Herein
is love," as if all love were here–love at its utmost height, love at
its climax, love out-doing itself– "Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for
our sins."

I have no time for an elaborate discourse and I have no desire to
preach in such a fashion, but I do want to get at your hearts by the
power of the Holy Spirit. There seem to me to be four things in the
text, each of which tends to bring out the greatness of Divine Love.
First, here is love to the loveless–"Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us." Secondly, here is love to the sinful–"God
loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
Thirdly, here is love providing a propitiation, not passing by sin
without atonement, but making a propitiation for sin. And, lastly, here
is love surrendering the Only-Begotten–"God loved us, and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins."

I. First, then, dear Friends, that we may see the love of God in its
fullness, I invite you to think of His LOVE TO THE LOVELESS–"Herein is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us."

Now, if man had loved God, God need not have loved man. If all of us
from our earliest childhood had loved our God, it would have somewhat
lessened the wonder that He should love us. I can understand that we
should marvel at God's loving us, even if we had always loved Him, for
we are so insignificant that what little love we can give to Him can
never deserve that He should fix His heart of love upon us. If an ant
were in love with an angel, it would not, therefore, follow that the
angel ought to be in love with the ant, yet there is no difference
between an ant and an angel compared with the difference between us and
God! We are nothing and He is All in All!

Yet I admit that if, from our youth up we had always loved God, it
would not have seemed so extraordinary a thing, knowing what we do of
God, that He should have loved us, but this is the startling word in
our text–"Not that we loved God." There is a negative put there and
the positive assertion is that God did love us, even though there is
also the negative that we did not love Him. It is very easy for us to
love those who love us. It is hard, sometimes, to love those who do not
love us, especially if they are under great obligation to us–and I am
sure that was our case with regard to God. We were deeply in debt to
Him and we ought to have loved Him with all our heart, mind, soul and
strength–but we did nothing of the kind! Yet, notwithstanding all
that, He loved us. While we were His enemies, He loved us and sent His
Son to save us.

Furthermore, let me remark that, when man does love God, it is no very
great wonder. If you and I love God–and I hope that we do–if we love
Him with all the fervor of which our hearts are capable, is there
anything, after all, very extraordinary in such affection? Why,
Brothers and Sisters, not to love the Lord our God is detestable! To
love Him is, in one sense, commendable, but it can never be considered
meritorious! Who can help loving a kind father who has cared for him
all his days? Who can help loving one who has saved him from death? Who
can help loving one who has laid down his life for him? Surely, if we
are in a right state of heart, we cannot help loving God because He
first loved us. When we do love Him, it is not at all wonderful–it
would be little enough return for the great love wherewith He has loved
us if we gave to Him all the love that we can ever bestow upon anyone–

"Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too
small! Love so amazing, so Divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all!'"
And, if God's love gets all that it demands, it is even then but a poor
return that we have made for love so magnificent as

His!

But, Beloved, I have been only supposing something which is not true,
for I have been supposing that we loved God. The fact is otherwise,
according to the text, for the Apostle says, "Not that we loved God."
Let us think a little of that terrible fact! I do not want to preach to
you, but I do wish you to preach to yourselves, or rather, that the
Holy Spirit may preach to you from this passage–"Not that we loved
God." For many a year we were indifferent to God. He came across our
path in many ways, but we did not want to see Him, or to hear about
Him. Some of us were favored by godly training, yet we did our best to
miss the blessing of it. We tried, as men say, to "sow our wild oats."
We did not care to do what God would have us do–we were totally
indifferent to His claims! Yet now, with tears in our eyes, we can
truthfully say that, "He loved us." We know that the Lord loved us even
when we were indifferent to Him!

Worse than that, there were some who were even insulting to God. I mean
that they spoke ill words about Him and about His Grace, His day, His
people, His cause, His Word. Some spoke exceedingly proud and exalted
themselves against the Lord–yet He loved them. Oh, how it wrings the
heart of a penitent sinner to think that God loved him when he was a
blasphemer, loved him when he imprecated a curse upon himself, loved
him when God, Himself, could not see anything in him that was lovable!
Loved him when there was not a spot of merit as big as a pin's head
upon which love could have rested if it had needed to rest on merit at
all! Oh, wonder of wonders! "Herein is love, not that we loved God,"
but that we were indifferent to Him and some even insulting to Him!

And oh, what rebellion against God there was in some of our hearts! How
we kicked and struggled against the idea of yielding to Him! Are there
not numbers of you who never think of God at all? You go to your daily
work, or to your business and God is not at all in your thoughts! If
there were no God, it would make no difference to some of you, except
that you would feel a little more comfortable and you would then be
glad that there would be no Judgment Day. But, O Sirs, this is a sad, a
miserable state to be in! If there were no hereafter and I had to die
like a dog, I would choose to love my God, for I find a peace, a
strength, a joy in it that makes life worth living! There is nothing
here on earth that is worth a man's pursuit except his God! If he once
knew the love of God, life would wear sunbeams about it–but apart from
that it is a drudgery! To the unbeliever, existence in this world is a
horrible slavery.

But, Brothers and Sisters, it is very wonderful that God should love us
when we try our hardest to be rid of Him, when we are at enmity against
Him, when we are opposed, even, to His love, and will not listen to the
Gospel of His Grace! Yet so He did–He loved us even in this condition!
Perhaps some of you do not feel that there is anything very remarkable
in this love of the Lord to the loveless. I should like you to try, if
you could, love somebody who has nothing about him that is at all
lovable. I hope, dear Christian people, that you do this, but if you
learn to love the wicked, the ungodly, the injurious, the deceivers–if
you even love those who vilify you, those who slander you every day,
those who despise you and deride you and those who are ungrateful to
you–if you do this, then you will get into some sort of sympathy with
God and you will begin to understand a little of what His great love
must be!

But there are some men who will never know what such an experience as
that is until God's Grace renews them, for if anybody says half a word
against them, their fist is soon in his eye! If anyone does them the
slightest injury, they will remember it and resent it as long as they
live! Yes, and I am afraid that there are some who call themselves
Christians who are of this spirit, and will not forgive. I heard of a
man who was driving an omnibus and who was beating one of the horses,
but he never hit the other. Someone on the box said to him, "Why don't
you whip the other horse?" "Oh," he answered, "I never touch him, for
if I did, when I put him up at night, he would kick me like a
Christian." When I heard that, I supposed that there must be some
so-called Christians who know how to kick when they get a cut of the
whip– and I am afraid that there are. But, if you can forgive to 70
times seven and still continue to forgive, even then you have only done
what you ought to do, for this is what the Lord Jesus commanded His
disciples to do–and this is what God did, though He was under no
obligation to do anything of the kind! Instead of bearing any
resentment, He was full of Almighty Love. And there are some here,
tonight, who, as they remember the years in which they lived without
loving God, must feel that, "herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us."

II. But now, secondly, it greatly enhances the love of God that it is
LOVE TO THE SINFUL. Remember that all sins are offenses against God.
Yet it is clear from our text that the Lord loves those who have
offended Him. There are multitudes who have lived a life full of
opposition to God, yet He has loved them all the while and saved them
after all!

Remember, too, that God has a very keen appreciation of what sin is. It
shocks Him, it disgusts Him–He cannot bear it. He calls it, "this
abominable thing which I hate." You and I are often callous to sin, but
God abhors it. His holy soul is stirred to indignation against it. Yet,
notwithstanding that–

"God loved the world of sinners lost And ruined by the Fall"

and sent His Son into the world to deliver men from sin, the sin which
He loathed and hated, for He determined to save them from the sin,
itself, and from all its terrible results! Well might the hymn-writer I
just quoted go on to sing–

"Oh, 'twas love, 'twas wondrous love, The love of God to me! It brought
my Sa vior from abo ve, To die on Calvary."

Do not forget, also, that many sins are committed specially against
God's Love. That is to say, there are some who even dare to sin the
more because God is merciful! There are, no doubt, many who have become
hardened in their lives of sin–though it is a shocking thing that it
should be so–by the very fact that they believe God is ready to
forgive them. If such is the condition of your hearts, my Hearers, let
me assure you that it has also been the case with many others and yet,
notwithstanding such an enormity of guilt, they have been saved from
their sins. Verily, "herein is love."

In the case of some persons, these sins have been persisted in and
aggravated. There are many whom God has loved with an everlasting love
and whom Christ has redeemed with His precious blood, who have lived
twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy years up to their necks in
sin–and that against light and knowledge! Some have gone on sinning
with a high hand more and more, yet Almighty Love has come in and saved
even them! Never let it be thought that any sinner is beyond the reach
of Divine Mercy so long as he is in the land of the living. I stand
here to preach illimitable love, unbounded Grace to the vilest of the
vile, to those who have nothing in them that can deserve consideration
from God– men who ought to be swept into the bottomless pit at once if
Justice meted out to them their just deserts! Even such sinners as
these, in multitudes of instances, have been washed and made clean
through the blood of Jesus Christ! "Herein is love."

I do not see how God ever could have shown His love to the same extent
as it is now displayed if there had never been any sin in the world. I
would not dare to say, as Augustine boldly did concerning Adam's sin,
"Beata culpa!"–"Happy fault!"–because it gave an opportunity for
Divine Love to prove itself to an extraordinary degree! But I will say
this– if God had made ten thousand worlds and lit them up with all His
wisdom and power, I do not see how He could have manifested His
matchless love, even then, as He displays it now in the fact that He
has loved sinful men and women–and loved them so as to make them His
sons and daughters and bring them to dwell with Him at His right hand
through Jesus Christ His Son!–

"He ga ve His Son, His only Son, To ransom rebel worms! 'Tis here He
makes His goodness known In its most Divine forms."

I have spoken to you, therefore, of two things that enhance God's
love–love to the loveless, and love to the sinful. I wish that some
poor soul could creep in through the door of God's Mercy to which I
have pointed and get a part and lot in these precious matters!

III. But now, thirdly, one of the things that make God's love seem very
wonderful is that it is LOVE PROVIDING A

PROPITIATION.

I have heard it asked, "Why did not God just wipe out human sin, and
say to the guilty, 'There, there, you have done wrong, but I have
forgiven you'"? Now, if He had done that, what inference would you have
drawn from such action on His part? Certainly you would not have been
able to say, "Herein is love," in the sense in which you can now say
it.

If the Lord had thus passed by sin, sin would have seemed little, and
Divine Love little. Many would have said, "Oh, well, sin was nothing
very great after all. It was an offense against God–He blotted it
out–and there is an end of it!" Is not everybody here quite certain
that we would have spoken like that? We would have concluded that sin
was a very trivial matter, nothing to worry about, or God would not
have passed it by so readily. But, look–it was such an awful evil that
He could not pass it by. In His Wisdom, whose judgment is Infallible,
sin was not pardonable except through a propitiatory Sacrifice! It was
not possible that offenses against The Divine Majesty should be wiped
out without expiation! God was the best judge of that question and now,
when He says, "There must be a propitiation, but I will provide it;
there must be an Atonement, but I will arrange it"–"Herein is
love"–love seen at a greater height than it could have been seen in
any other way!

Besides, dear Friends, by any other method of removing sin, love would
not have been seen so majestic over all other attributes. Suppose that
the Lord had simply said, "Well, though these people have offended, I
forgive them and there is an end of the quarrel"? Then there could not
have been exhibited that wondrous sight which we now see! In the death
of Christ, the Great Propitiation, we see Divine Wisdom planning the
way, exercising itself to the fullest to devise a method by which God
might be just and yet, "the Justifier of him which believes in Jesus."
Then we see Divine Justice coming in fully satisfied by the death of
Christ and bowing a glad assent to the pardon of the sinner–who is as
justly forgiven as he would, on the other hand, have been righteously
punished! In the vicarious Atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see
all the attributes of God sitting at the feet of Love–all looking up
and saying to Love–"We will do your bidding, we will, all of us,
co-act and co-work till the whole Godhead shall be seen exerting its
Omniscience and putting forth its Omnipotence, in order that there
might be a propitiation for sin." "Herein is love."

Again, I do not see, dear Friends, if God had pardoned us without
expiation, how we ever could have felt the security of love that we now
feel. I feel at this moment–I do not know how every Believer, here,
feels– but I feel that I am absolutely safe! I am a sinner, but there
is no reason on earth, or under the earth, or in Heaven, itself, why I
should be sent to Hell. My sin has been forgiven me, but, what is much
more than that, my Lord Jesus Christ has made such a complete Atonement
for all my guilt that it does not even exist as a charge against me!
The debt is paid and the receipt is nailed to His cross–and this gives
me such a perfect peace, such an absolute rest–I do not think I could
have had if I had merely read in the Scriptures that God had passed by
the sin without a propitiation! He has not passed by the sin–He has
exacted the full penalty for it! And the penalty having been paid, the
Atonement having been offered, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? Our dead sins are buried! Christ, Himself, has put them
away, and they can never rise against us in judgment any more. Looking
up to our Lord, we can say, with Toplady–

"Complete Atonement You have made, And to the utmost farthing paid
Whatever Your people owed! Nor can His wrath on me take place, If
sheltered in Your righteousness, And sprinkled with Your blood." And
once more, the stoop of love could never have seemed so great without
expiation, for, see, if God had pardoned sin without Atonement, He
would have sat in the serene majesty of Heaven and we would have
thought that sin was a trifling thing, altogether beneath His notice!
But now, He that made all things and by whom all things consist, takes
off the robes of His splendor and comes down to earth! What can He be
going to do? Blessed spirits, who have waited around His Throne for
ages, what is He doing? He is going to the earth to unite the nature of
fallen humanity with His own perfect Deity! He that is God is also to
be Man! What a wonder! What a marvel! But there is something more
extraordinary to follow–being found in fashion as a Man, the time
comes when man's sin is laid upon Him! What? did He bear sin?
Listen–"Who His own self"–that is, Christ, whom angels worship, the
Incarnate Wisdom, without whom was not anything made that was
made–"who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree."
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse
for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree."

Why, do you know, sometimes, when I am thinking over this wondrous
stoop of love, I wish that I could jump into this pulpit, directly, and
tell you what I feel about it? Sometimes, at the dead of night, I sit
up in bed, lost in wonder at the amazing Love of God in the gift of His
dear Son! That I should commit a sin and that God, Himself, should bear
its punishment! That my guilt should make a propitiation,
necessary–and that the Divine Son of God should suffer in my place!
That the necessary expiation should be made–this is surely the
greatest wonder of earth or Heaven! It is the greatest marvel that ever
shall be, that He, who is God over all, blessed forever, yet stoops so
low as this! I can understand His stooping to poverty and being a
carpenter. I can understand His stooping to hunger and to thirst. I can
understand His stooping even to death–but that He should bear our
sins–this is the greatest stoop of all! "Herein is love." O blessed
Lord Jesus, how must You have loved us when You did not disdain to bear
even the enormous burden of our sin! Oh, that these lips had language
that I could tell this old, old story as my heart often tells it to
herself! But I must leave each one of you to think it over, under the
teaching of the Holy Spirit, till you, also, feel, "Herein is love,"

IV. The last thing on which I am to speak at this time is LOVE
SURRENDERING THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN.

I have shown you wherein God's Love excels all other loves–it is love
to the loveless, love to the sinful, love providing a propitiation. Now
here is the climax of the love of God in giving up His only-begotten
Son–"He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins."

You do not need for me to say much about this part of our subject. Will
you kindly recall the story of Abraham and his son Isaac going to the
mount in the land of Moriah? Put the Lord God and His well-beloved Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in the place of the Patriarch and his son, and
you can see the picture of the Atonement drawn to the life before your
eyes. You remember how the Lord said to Abraham, "Take now your son,
your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and get you into the land of
Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the
mountains which I will tell you of."

Jesus was God's Son, His only-begotten Son, whom He loved more than any
of you can ever love your sons or daughters, for the love of God
towards Him is ineffable, immeasurable! It is not possible for me to
tell you how much God loved His Son. But that Son who had always given
Him delight, in whom He was well-pleased–that Son must endure shame,
agony and death if sinners were ever to be saved! How could the Father
give up His Son for such a purpose? I have sometimes felt as if I could
almost rush in, and say, "No! It must not be! The price is too great to
be paid for the rescue of such worthless worms as we are!" Yet, to
ransom any one of us, the Son of God must be sacrificed and sacrificed,
as it were, by His Father, for thus is it written, "It pleased the Lord
to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief." Thus, there is one point of
resemblance between the offering of Isaac and the propitiatory
Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ–it was the Father who had to offer
up His son whom He loved so dearly. But there are many more
similarities between these two offerings.

In the 22nd chapter of the Book of Genesis, we read that, "Abraham rose
up early in the morning." God also rose early to make this great
propitiation for our sins. In the Everlasting Covenant, before the
earth was, He ordained the Sacrifice which should tear His heart. God
Himself had done as Abraham did when he cut the wood for the burnt
offering, that is, the Lord prepared everything for the coming, the
life and the death of His Son. All that went before in the arrangements
of Providence was like the chopping of the wood and the laying of it in
order–even from eternity the great Father contemplated the Sacrifice
on Calvary and went on with all that was necessary for its completion.

Then there was the lifting of the sacrificial knife–"Abraham stretched
forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son." That lifting of
the knife in the case of Jesus was, first, when in Gethsemane's garden,
the Father permitted His Son to sweat, as it were, great drops of
blood. And next, when on the Cross He allowed Him to say, "My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?" This was the knife for the sacrificing
of the Son. Then came the crushing of our Redeemer's soul beneath the
mass of human sin. The great upper and nether millstones of Almighty
Wrath pressed and bruised the heart of the Son of God! Omnipotence put
forth all its power to deal out the vengeance due to sin! It cried to
Justice to be stern, sterner than ever–"Awake, O sword." Not, "Let Me
use the sword," but, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against
the Man that is my Fellow, says the Lord of Hosts." And into the very
dust of death the well-beloved Son of God was crushed!

Remember, also, that touching little sentence about Abraham and
Isaac–"They went both of them together." This was true of Jesus and
His Father–Jesus a willing Sacrifice–and God as willingly
surrendering His dear Son for our sakes. Never forget the Father's love
in giving up His Son! It used to be laid down in theology that God "has
no feeling, neither parts nor passions." Others may worship a dead,
unfeeling God, if they will, but I do not! The God whom I worship can
feel far more than any of His creatures can! And what He felt when He
gave up His Son to die, it is not for human lips to tell. This is among
the things which it were unlawful and impossible for a man to utter.
Just what you would have felt if you had given your only son. Just what
you would have felt if you had been Abraham and you had offered up your
beloved Isaac. Just that–multiplied by infinity–did the Eternal
Father feel when He gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins!
"Herein is love." Rightly did we sing just now–

"O love of God, how strong and true! Eternal, and yet always new,
Uncomprehended and unbought, Beyond all knowledge and all thought. We
read You best in Him who came To bear for us the Cross of shame; Sent
by the Father from on high, Our life to live, our death to die." When
you get home, sit down, say nothing to anybody, but just try, if you
can, to realize that God actually did give up His only-begotten Son
that you might live through Him, if you are a Believer in that dear Son
of God and you live through Him! If He bore your griefs and carried
your sorrows. If He was wounded for your transgressions and bruised for
your iniquities. If He put away all your sins, then fall down at His
dear feet and weep yourself away. No, rise and sing yourself away! And
when you have done that, come back, again, and go forth to work for Him
with all your might–and try to love your fellow men at something like
the rate at which God loved you! You will never reach that climax of
love, but aim at getting as near to it as you can–and God bless you in
the effort!

It seems to me so sad that there should be anybody in the world who
does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And very sad that there
should be any poor sinner, here, who does not lay hold on eternal life
as it is set forth in the Gospel. You self-righteous people, you who
never did any wrong, I do not expect you to take any notice of this
discourse–you are so wretchedly wrapped up in yourselves that you care
nothing for my blessed Master! You are like the self-made man, of whom
I have heard, who used to adore his own maker–his maker being himself.

But you who are poor and needy, burdened with sin and full of guilt,
this is the God for you! This is the Christ for you! Come and have Him,
come and trust Him and then sing with all of us who have believed in
Him–"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins!" May His blessing
rest on you all, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 JOHN 4; PHILIPPIANS 4:1-9.

1 John 4:1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into
the world. If John had need to say that in the early morning of
Christianity, I am sure we ought to say it with greater emphasis today!
It is certainly true in these days that, "many false prophets are gone
out into the world." Therefore we, also, must, "try the spirits whether
they are of God."

2. Hereby know you the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. If the doctrine of the
Incarnation of God in Christ is denied, as it was by the first
heretics, we may conclude that the Spirit of God is not in such
teaching. Any doctrine which dishonors Christ–whether in His Person,
or His offices, or His Atonement, or in any other way–you may at once
conclude is not of God, for that which comes from the Spirit of God
glorifies Christ. Did not our Lord, Himself, say, concerning the Holy
Spirit, "He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall
show it unto you"?

3. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you
have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the
world. The devil is up early at his evil work! We may sleep, but he
never does. This is that spirit of antichrist, whereof, "you have heard
that it should come; and even now already is it in the world."

4. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them. How? By
argument? No, but–

4. Because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.
If God's own Spirit is in you, you need not fear any of these enemies.
"Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." If it
were a conflict between you and others who had the Spirit of God within
them, the conflict would be grievous and the issue of it would be
doubtful. But now that the struggle is between the Spirit of God who is
in you and the spirit of error that is in the world, you need have no
question about the ultimate result of the battle!

5, 6. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the
world hears them. We are of God: he that knows God hears us; he that is
not of God hears not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the
spirit of error. If Apostolic teaching is denied, those who deny it are
not of God, for the Spirit of God was in the Apostles, as He is also in
all the Lord's true children. By this test we may try many of the
spirits of the present day–"He that knows God hears us; He that is not
of God hears not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit
of error." The Apostle now gives us another Infallible test by which we
may "try the spirits."

7, 8. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and
everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not
knows not God; for God is Love. Where there is the spirit of enmity, of
envy, of pride, of contention, there is not the Spirit of God! That
which makes towards love, we may depend upon it–it came forth from
love! But that which makes towards division, contention, emulation and
strife, is not of God, "for God is Love."

9-12. In this was manifested the Love of God toward us, because that
God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that some might live
through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved
us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if
God so loved us, we ought, also, to love one another. No man has seen
God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love
is perfected in us. We cannot see God, but we can love God, and love,
therefore, takes the place of eyes to us. When we love God, it is
because He dwells in us! That is better than seeing Him–to have Him
resident within our spirit, although He is not discernible by these
mortal eyes!

13-16. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He
has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the
Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in Him, and he in God.
And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is
Love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. These
words are very simple, but the lesson they convey is a very deep one.
Most of them are monosyllables, but, oh, what marvels of meaning the
Holy Spirit enabled the Apostle John to put into them!

17, 18. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in
the day ofjudgment: because as He is, so are we in this world. There is
no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has
torment. That is a servile fear, of course, but there is a fear which
has no torment in it–that holy fear which even angels feel when they
veil their faces in the Presence of the Most high. There is no torment
in that reverent awe and, the more we have of love towards God, the
more of that filial fear shall we have! But that slavish dread, that
awful terror which begets within itself dislike, cannot live where true
love is planted within the soul–

"Perfect love casts out fear."

18-20. He that fears is not made perfect in love. We love Him, because
He first loved us. If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he
is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can
he love God, whom he has not seen? God looked upon us with an eye that
saw all our sin and misery, yet He loved us, and He wants us to have a
love which, while it sees all the imperfection and all the faults in
our fellow men, yet loves them notwithstanding all. If we do not love
those whom we see, the Apostle says that we do but lie when we talk of
loving God whom we have not seen.

21. And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loves God love
his brother, also. Now let us read what another Apostle has to say,
under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, upon this subject of
Christian love. Turn to Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, the fourth
chapter.

Philippians 4:1. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for,
my joy and crown, so standfast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. It is a
great joy to a minister, as it was to the Apostle Paul, to have
converts. But that joy is greatly diminished when they do not stand
fast–then, indeed, every supposed joy becomes a sorrow and, instead of
the roses which yield a sweet perfume to the Lord's servant–thorns
begin to prick and wound his heart.

2. I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same
mind in the Lord. Only two women and we do not know who they were, yet
Paul gives each of them a, "beseech"–"I beseech Euodias, and beseech
Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord." If there are only
two of the most obscure Sisters in the Church who are quarrelling,
their differences ought to be brought to an end at once. There should
be no disagreements among Christians! Love should reign, peace should
predominate. If there is anything contrary to such a state as that, God
grant that it may soon be brought to an end!

3. And I entreat you, also, true yoke fellow, help, those women which
labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement, also, and with other of my
fellow laborers, whose names are in the Book of Life. Brother, do all
the good you can to help everybody else to do good! Help those whose
names are in the Book of Life, even if they are not known anywhere
else. Also help the "Clement" whose name is known–be sure to help him.
Indeed, help everybody! There is an office in the Church of Christ
which we do not sufficiently recognize, but which ought to be
abundantly filled. Paul mentions it in writing to the Corinthians. He
says, "And God has set some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily
prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of
healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues." It is the office
of certain Christians to be "helps." May we always have many such
"helps" among us! Did you ever notice that almost every time that
Bartholomew is mentioned in Scripture, we read, "and Bartholomew"? He
is never spoken of alone, but it is written, "Philip, and Bartholomew,"
or, "Bartholomew and Matthew." It is good to have some Bartholomews who
are always helping somebody else, so that when there is any good work
to be done, Bartholomew is always ready to share in it, for he shall
also have a part in the reward at the last.

4. Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. The very word,
"rejoice," seems to imply a reduplication. It is joy, and re-joy, joy
over again! But here, you see, it is a fourfold rejoicing; joy, and
re-joy; and again I say, joy, and re-joy! And this is to be the
Christian's continual experience, for the Apostle says, "Rejoice in the
Lord always."

5. 6. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Have no
care, but much prayer. Prayer is the cure for care! If you are in
trouble, "Let your requests be made known," not to your neighbors, but,
"unto

God."

7, 8. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep
your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever
things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just,
whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things
are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise,
think on these things. Be on the side of everything that is good and
right, everything that helps true human progress, everything that
increases virtue and purity. As a Christian, take an interest in
everything that helps to make men true, honest, just, pure, and lovely.

9. Those things, which you have both learned, and received, and heard
and seen in me, do; and the God of peace shall be with you. May the
Lord fulfill that gracious Word to all of us, "The God of peace shall
be with you"! Amen.