II. THAT LOVE HAS BEEN MANIFESTED TO OUR RACE. (John 1:9, John 1:10.) Through whom? "His only begotten Son." How? "A Propitiation." For what? "For our sins." With what intent? That we might live through him. No true life of peace, joy, and fellowship with God was possible for us until sin was put away. No one could do this but One in and of the race, yet over it—One who by his humanity could represent earth, and who yet as the eternal Son could represent the Father; he alone could take this place, and by offering himself to the Father, for us, on account of our sin, he revealed how sin burdened the heart of God, and gave by his own sacrifice such an expression to man of the Divine holiness and rectitude, that, on the ground thereof, the infinitely Pure One might receive the penitent lovingly to his embrace, yet make no compromise with sin.£
III. SUCH A PROPITIATION REVEALS A LOVE ALTOGETHER UNIQUE. (John 1:9, John 1:10.) "In this," etc. "Herein is love;" as if it were seen nowhere ease. All other love fades away in comparison herewith. This will appear as we study:
1. Its origin. God's own love, self originated and sustained, unbought, spontaneous.
2. Its method. The bestowment of the greatest possible gift, and that as a sacrifice.
3. Its objects. lie loved us sinners, traitors, alienated ones.
4. Its extent. "The whole world;" i.e., all the race on the globe through all time!
5. Its intent. That we might live. That all who believe might be made heirs of glory.
IV. SUCH A LOVE, SO MANIFESTED, CREATES A NEW DUTY OF LOVE ON OUR PART.£ (John 1:11.) Nothing ever threw so much light on the value of man in God's eye as the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on his behalf. Nothing else ever disclosed what God meant to do with us. But, it once being shown how great are the possibilities opening up to man through Christ, all the relations between man and man come to be invested with new meaning; and the self-evidencing force of the appeal of John 1:11 ought to be irresistibly felt.
V. GOD'S AMAZING LOVE TO MAN IS ATTENDED WITH A NEW CREATIVE POWER. (John 1:7.) "Every one that loveth is born of God."£ "It should never be forgotten," says Trench, "that ἀγάπη is a word born within the bosom of revealed religion; it occurs in the LXX, but there is no example of its use in any heathen writer whatever." The pure and holy parental love, the love of children as we understand it, the fondest,and purest affections of husband and wife, are the birth of Christianity, i.e., of Divine love as revealed in Christ. Men cannot know how truly and how largely this is the case till they examine into the state of the pagan world at the time of Christ. The apostle himself declares, "We love, because he first loved us."
VI. WHEN BEING BORN OF GOD, WE LOVE LIKE HIM, WE ARE BROUGHT INTO FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM. (John 1:12, John 1:13.) When God hath given us of his own Spirit of love, so that we in our measure come to love like God, then we know that "we dwell in him, and he in us." There is a loving and abiding intercommunion. We, being in full sympathy with God, must needs yearn to pour forth ourselves to others, as God hath given himself to us. And this outgoing of ourselves to our brother is a sure pledge of God being in us, and we in him.£
VII. IN PROPORTION AS THIS IS THE CASE, WE KNOW GOD. (John 1:12.) The first and second clauses of this verse are very closely connected together. "No man hath seen God at any time, [but] if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us;" and so we come to know God, though no one hath ever seen him. We know him through love whom we cannot behold by the sight (cf. Matthew 5:8). Only love can possibly read love. A cold heart can never understand a warm one, but one warm heart can read another. So we come to know God through learning from him to love as he loves. And the more complete our devotion to man for God's sake, the fuller and richer will be our knowledge of God's infinite love.
VIII. THE HEART THAT LOVETH NOT CANNOT KNOW GOD. (John 1:8.) The love of God is so vast that it embraceth "a great multitude which no man can number." It is so minute that it yearns for "one sinner" to repent. It is so active that it sent its noblest embassy to invite the wanderers to return. It is so tender that it would not that "one of these little ones should perish." How can, a man who does not love understand all that? It is not that God closes his heart against the man; it is the man that steels his heart against God. And until the warmth of Divine love melts the thick-ribbed ice of his frozen soul, no stream of love will ever flow from him to gladden and fertilize a world.
Note: See what it is will estrange a man for ever from his God, and will shut him up in hopeless ignorance of God—unlovingness; simply this. Objection: But are you not reasoning in a circle? You say man does not love till God's love kindles his, and yet that he cannot know God till he loves! Which is first? Surely here is vicious circle. No; not at all. God's love goes out first. That love is manifested in the work of Christ. When we were yet sinners Christ died for us. "He that would be warm must keep near the fire," said Matthew Henry. Even so, let the cold frozen heart stay near the cross, till, fueling the warmth of love there, it is set aglow. Then, being set aglow by learning of the love of God, he will at once begin to understand the God of love!
£
God-likeness the seal of a Divine indwelling.
Connecting link: This verse is closely allied to the verse preceding. Though no one has at any time seen God, yet God is within us if his love is reproduced in us by the new birth of the Holy Ghost. Hence our present topic—Conformity to God the proof that God is the Life of our lives. £There is in some respects a considerable resemblance between this verse and 1 John 3:24. But the student desiring to be exact in his unfolding of the writer's words will note
I. HERE IS A FACT ASSERTED. "He hath given us of his Spirit." Both the Gospel and the Epistles of John are Trinitarian. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, all are there, each fulfilling his own part in the saving work. The Father the Origin, the Son the Channel, the Spirit the Agent, in the redemptive economy. The Father sends the Son. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Father plans the redeeming work. The Son carries it out objectively for man. The Spirit applies it subjectively in man. It is the last-named act which is specified here.
1. The Spirit of God comes within man, freely. "Given." The gift of the Spirit within is as gratuitous on God's part as the gift of his dear Son. He is bestowed by the Son, as the Gift of the Father's love (Luke 11:13; John 1:33; John 14:16, John 14:17).
2. The Spirit of God, when within us, controls us. We are "led by the Spirit;" we "live in the Spirit;" we "walk in the Spirit;" and the entire direction of the new life is in his gracious hands.
3. The Spirit of God, by controlling us, transforms us. We come to love as God loves. We come to be, in our measure, as the governing force of our spirits is. And since that is love, we love; we catch the holy impulse of the self-sacrificing zeal; and yearn to lay ourselves out for those around us.
II. THIS TRANSFORMATION TO THE DIVINE LIKENESS IS THE PROOF AND SEAL OF A DIVINE INDWELLING. This may be set in two ways.
1. Positively.
The living on another, drawing our life, joy, love, might, all from another, is as real to us as the air we breathe. And if we have any likeness to God, it is to God himself we owe it, and by fellowship with him it is nourished and increased.
2. Negatively. This life of love cannot be attributed to any other cause; for:
(a) Not from the world; for there man turneth "every one to his own way."
(b) Not from the Church; for no one has power to impart the grace of love.
III. THE FACT, SO ACCOUNTED FOR, HAS IN IT MANIFOLD TEACHINGS.
1. For the unregenerate. They should learn what it is they need. Life, life within them!
2. For the inconsistent professors. They want reality, not a sham life.
3. For those who do not know where they are in religion. Let them not waste time in "feeling their pulse;" let them open their hearts to receive God; they will soon know their state then.
4. For those seeking after the evidences of Christianity. They will find them in men filled with the Spirit of God.
5. For the students of history. They wilt find a new world of love, slowly yet surely forming, under the power of the cross and of the Spirit of our God.
The historic basis of the Christian testimony.
Connecting link: The mutual indwelling of God in us and of our spirits in God is the result of a Divine revelation of love made to us on God's part, and of the reception of that love on our part. That love, which has been and is still the object of our adoring contemplation, and to speak it out among the people is the business of our lives. "We have seen," etc. We may be permitted here to quote in full a note of unusual value from the 'Speaker's Commentary' upon this verse: "'We have seen with adoring wonder, and the impression of the sight abides with us τεθεάμεθα, and are bearing witness μαρτυροῦμεν, that the Father hath sent [perfect] the Son as the Saviour of the word.' One of the numerous loops that bind the Epistle to the Gospel" (comp. John 1:32, John 1:34; 1 John 1:1-3; John 19:35).
I. THE RECORD BEFORE US IS THAT OF THOSE WHO WERE EYE-WITNESSES OF THE FACTS OF THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. (John 1:16; John 19:35.) In this Epistle (and in the Gospel by the same apostle) we have the history of our Lord's life given us by one who had followed with him, and who understood the meaning of that life at least as well as any other of the apostles. But we note—
II. THAT THE EYE-WITNESSES OF THE EXTERNAL FACTS OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST LOOKED ALSO BENEATH THE SURFACE, AND BEHELD THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FACTS. Four distinct and leading features thereof are given here.
1. That Jesus Christ was "the Son" of God. Not merely a Son. Not a Son merely in the same sense that others may become. But the only begotten Son; of the same nature with the Father.
2. That he was "sent" by the Father.
3. That he was sent to save—to save from sin.
4. That his mission was for the race. "The Saviour of the world."
III. THAT TO BEAR WITNESS TO THESE FACTS WAS THE GREAT BUSINESS OF THEIR LIVES. "We do testify." They lived for this. They suffered for this. If need be, they were prepared to die for it. To assert it over and over again they gave up all that earth calls dear; they encountered opposition and fiery persecution; they counted not their lives dear unto them. So that their testimony was of such a kind as could not possibly be false. We say this, well weighing our words, and fully assured that the scientific value of the testimony to the facts of our Lord's life, death, and resurrection cannot be overestimated, and that it is a question which demands more careful study from the unbeliever than many will consent to give to it. The testimony stands thus:
1. It rests on a clear and distinct historical basis.
2. It is given by men who were eye-witnesses of the main facts they relate.
3. The meaning of the facts was directly opposed to their national expectations and prepossessions, and such as they could only have been induced to give when all their prejudices were overborne by a Power from on high.
4. In such a life and work, so full of Divine meaning, there was a message presented to the people for them to believe (John 20:31). The reception of the message was intended to lead up to a living faith in Jesus as the Saviour of the lost (comp. John 4:42).
5. Such faith in Jesus would ensure the privileges of sonship (John 1:12). With sonship would come fellowship, with fellowship knowledge of God. In this knowledge would be the eternal life (1 John 5:9-12).
IV. TO HAVE SUCH TESTIMONY BEFORE US INVOLVES US IN GREAT RESPONSIBILITY. Such a testimony, so given, with such a purpose, cannot leave us where it found us. We are responsible to God for the use we make of such a message as this. We are bound
Divine love a home for the soul, and a force within it.
Connecting link: There is a connection between the several verses on which we are now dwelling (1 John 4:7-19). But it is not so much a connection of thoughts that follow consecutively one from another, as a connection such as exists between glowing sparks that follow one after another, from the same mass, when struck upon the same anvil, by the same hammer, wielded by the same arm. The apostle gives us here a startlingly beautiful succession of truths concerning love—Divine love—revealed in Christ, and laying hold of men. Obviously, in 1 John 4:15, 1 John 4:16 there are two statements concerning believers generally—"Whosoever shall confess," etc.; "He that dwelleth in love," etc. There is also one statement concerning the apostle and his fellow-workers—" We have known," etc. Let us take these in their order. £
I. HERE ARE TWO GENERAL STATEMENTS, CONCERNING A BLESSED CONDITION AND THOSE TO WHOM IT BELONGS.
1. Here is a supremely happy condition. It is twofold.
2. To whom does this twofold blessedness belong? See footnote to homily on 1 John 3:4-12. There are here two statements in reply to this question. The apostle says, "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God" is thus blessed; and that "he that dwelleth in love" is so also. We must elucidate this by offering, first, a word or two on each phrase, and then by showing the connection that exists between them.
(a) that "Jesus is the Son of God," and as such the Revealer of love, is the message addressed to faith.
(b) Faith receives him, and with him the love which he reveals.
(c) Confession constantly rings out the faith, and by so doing vastly increases faith's realizing power.
(d) This, through the energy of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 12:3), makes the love of God in Christ so real to the faithful confessor, that he actually dwells in love, and so reaches the state specified as "dwelling in love" (1 John 3:16). Thus the two conditions differ only as the terminus a quo from the terminus ad quem. Confession is the former; dwelling in love is the latter. Note: This is verified by the order of the phrases being in the one case, "God dwelleth in him, and he in God;" and in the other, "dwelleth in God, and God in him."
II. THE APOSTLE MAKES A SPECIFIC APPLICATION OF THIS TO HIMSELF AND HIS FELLOW-BELIEVERS. He has not been writing at random, nor has he been moving in a region so transcendental that experience cannot verify it. He can verify it from his own experience. Those to whom he is writing can verify it from theirs. The difference between the Authorized Version and the Revised Version should be noted here: "We have known and believed the love that God hath in us ἐν ἡμῖν." Not "toward us" or "to us," as if it were εἰς ἡμᾶς. The miserable marginal rendering in the Revised Version should also be carefully avoided: "in our case" (!). The believer has gone much further than to know the love of God to him. He knows it in him, as a reviving, cheering, glowing, inspiring, life-giving power. It is in him as the "living water springing up into everlasting life." The following order of thought might develop this. Divine love is:
1. A manifestation amongst us, ἐν ἡμῖν (1 John 3:9).
2. An impartation realized in us (Romans 5:5).
3. A reciprocated love, as ours has been called forth thereby (1 John 3:19).
4. A transforming love, causing us to love as God loves (1 John 3:12).
5. A self-consummating love, fulfilling its own ends in and through us, and causing its outworking to be perfected in us, as its newly opened channel, through which it is flowing on to the boundless ocean of everlasting life and glory ἡ ἀγάπη αὐτοῦ τετελειωμένη ἐστὶν ἐν ἡμῖν.
Who, who is equal to the adequate unfolding of thoughts so sublime? In writing this homily we feel as if human words were an intrusion; and such they are, if irrelevant or superfluous. But if they are such as we aim to make them—illustrative of the thoughts in the text—then the gracious Spirit wilt deign to own them, however far they fall short of what the writer's largest wishes could desire. With three queries for the conscience and the heart we close.
Love's boldness in the day of judgment.
Connecting link: The apostle had been speaking of God's love being perfected in us. He now glances forward to the outlook of believers, as bounded by the παρουσία and the κρίσις, and in so doing he shows that, as love attains its perfection, all dread which might otherwise attend on the prospect is removed; so that the believer may have παῤῥησία even on the judgment-day. As, however, in these verses there is some room for differences of interpretation, we must first state what appears to us to be the meaning of some of its clauses, since the entire structure of this homily depends thereon.
1. "Herein is the love made perfect with us." "The love," i.e., God's love which (1 John 4:12) is perfecting itself in the soul that loves. "With us." With whom? "With us, as believers, one towards another?" or "with believers and God?" We adopt the latter view—God's own love consummating itself in working through believers; and their love consummating itself also in laying hold of God's. "It is difficult not to feel that there is some subtle reference to the idea of God with us."£ "Love is not simply perfected in man by an act of Divine power, but in fulfilling this issue God works with man" (Westcott).
2. "Because as he is, so are we in this world." In what sense are believers in the world as Christ is? or rather, what is the sense in which it is so intended here by the apostle? Is it not this—we are looking forward to the day of judgment as the consummation of our hope, and the Redeemer is working in the world with a view to the day of judgment as the consummation of his mediatorial work? In this view we are confirmed by a remark of Canon Westcott: "'This world' as distinguished from 'the world' emphasizes the idea of transitoriness." Just so, Christ, in his redeeming work, and we in our believing hope, are working with the same goal in view—"the day of judgment." This world is but a passing phase of things.
3. "Fear hath punishment [Authorized Version, 'torment']." There is nothing here to suggest that "fear" has any disciplinary effect in inducing love. The apostle views it simply as the ever-attendant penalty of unlovingness. He whose nature is out of harmony with God's must dread him everywhere and always. Spirits in league with evil will seek rest in vain. They will tremble. But in the perfecting of love all this is done away.
I. THE PRESENT PERIOD IS BUT A TRANSITION ONE. This is the day in which our Lord Jesus is carrying on his saving work in the world, and his educating process in the Church; and all with a view to "the great day." Believers, too, are only in the preliminary period of their training, and hence they too believe and hope and love with a view to "the great day." As their Lord is, so are they in this passing world, looking to and preparing for what lies above and beyond it. Hence such passages as these: Matthew 25:1-46.; Mark 13:35-37; Luke 13:24, Luke 13:25; Luke 18:8; Luke 21:36; John 14:3; Acts 2:20, Acts 2:21; Romans 14:9-12; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Philippians 1:6, Philippians 1:10; Colossians 1:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Timothy 1:12.
II. THE DAY TO WHICH WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD IS "THE DAY OF JUDGMENT." It is the day of the Lord, when he shall be manifested. It may be as lengthened a period as the present one, which is "the day of salvation." As the day of judgment, it will close the probation of the race; while for those who are looking for our Lord it will bring in the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the last time. In the word "judgment," however, much more is included than at first sight appears. "Judgment" is indeed a rectification, an adjustment; but then what that may mean in detail depends on the person or thing to be judged. If, e.g., any one is unlawfully bound, judgment would be liberation. If any one be deprived of a right, his judgment would mean restoration. If unjustly accused, vindication. If misunderstood or misinterpreted, manifestation. If good and evil are mixed up together, judgment would be separation; and as the result, for the bad condemnation, and for the righteous glorification. Judgment is, in fact, the restitution of all things, not necessarily in the sense attributed to that phrase by advocates of universal restoration, but in a far higher sense, even that of rendering to every man according as his work shall be (cf. Acts 17:31).
III. IF THAT DAY BE DREADED ON OUR PART, IT IS EVIDENT THERE IS SOME DEFICIENCY IN OUR LOVE. That aught so solemn as the final destinies of a race can be contemplated without a feeling of awe—an awe that is sometimes overwhelming—is not desirable, even were it possible. Reverence, indeed, forbids it otherwise. But this holy, reverent awe must not be confounded with the servile dread referred to in the text: εὐλαβεία (Hebrews 12:28) is very different from φόβος. The fear which is inconsistent with perfect love is the fear of the slave dreading the lash, or the culprit dreading the verdict. But if the love of God is within us, sweetly subduing us with its tenderness, and if through that love sin is pardoned and destroyed, why, there is no lash to dread, there is no adverse verdict to fear (John 5:24, Revised Version); for in such a case, to see the Judge upon the throne will be to look upon the face of an infinite Vindicator and Friend, in whose love we have lived here, and the enjoyment of whose love is the highest heaven for ever! And so far as the judgment will bear on others, the man of love will be more than content with the decisions of the Son of God and Son of man, and will desire nothing more than that the entire race should be dealt with by Christ as he sees fit. Evidently, if this be not our state of mind, there must be deficiency in love in exactly the same degree as there is any restless fear.
IV. CONSEQUENTLY, OUR GREAT CONCERN SHOULD BE TO BE PERFECTED IN LOVE. We may take this in either or both of two ways.
1. Let it be our concern that God's own love may be so richly communicated to us as to transform us to his likeness.
2. Let it be our concern to have so clear an apprehension and knowledge of God, that we shall see in him and in all his attributes only pure and perfect love. In the former case there can be nothing to dread for ourselves. In the latter case we shall dread nothing in him. φόβος has no door of entrance whatever.
V. WHEN PERFECTED IN LOVE WE SHALL HAVE παῤῥησία IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. "Confidence," "boldness," "freedom of speech" (cf. 1 John 2:1-29:38; 1 John 3:21, Greek). Dread seals the lips. Love opens them. The "salvation" which will serve then is not an artificial plucking out of a burning ruin, irrespectively of character; it is being made perfect by Divine grace, even as our Father in heaven is perfect.
VI. CONSEQUENTLY, as the apostle of love shows us here, EACH OF US MUST FACE THE SOLEMN QUESTION—What will the judgment-day bring to me—"boldness" or "punishment"? One or the other must be.£ Which? There may be an attempt to lessen the weight of these thoughts by objections or pleas; e.g., it may be said:
1. The "punishment" is corrective. We suggest three replies.
2. There is no knowing when the judgment may come (cf. Ezekiel 12:27). But men forget that the judgment is but the manifestation of that which is going on now and ever. A spirit out of harmony with God must be ill at ease always and everywhere. Fear hath torment, now; and can never be separated from it, any more than a man can flee from his own shadow (Job 15:21-35).
1 John 4:19 - Creed and life: the relation between them.
Connecting link: The apostle had shown that only as love is perfected in us can we be free from the fear which has torment, and so have boldness in the day of judgment. The verse before us declares that, as matter of fact, this love is being inwrought, and the sole cause thereof is that God first loved. "We love, because he first loved us." The verse is one of peculiar beauty and value. "It is the sanctuary of my soul," said an aged Christian to the writer, referring to this text. And well it may be. We propose its homiletic exposition here, as a verse which sets forth with striking, yea, almost startling, clearness the relation between creed and life. Often have we been pained by the statement, "Religion is not a creed, but a life." There is enough truth in those words to make them attractive, and enough error to make them deceptive. Let us rather say, "Religion is not only a creed, but also a life," and then we shall be nearer the truth. Following the words of our text, observe—
I. IN RELIGION THERE, IS A CREED. "He first loved us." Here, in these four short words, is the first creed of the Christian Church—a creed which it had before even the New Testament existed; and through all the Christian centuries, with all their perplexing entanglements and sharp controversies, these words have run like a golden thread through the faith of the Church. "He first loved us." What is love? It is righteousness and benevolence acting in harmony. Now, here is love's origin. He first loved. That is, God loved. Note: The word "love" is current coin throughout the universe of God, and means with him what it means with us. (For an opening up of the wonders of God's love, see homily on 1 John 4:7-12.)
"All my life I still have found,
And I will forget it never—
Every sorrow hath its bound,
And no cross endures for ever.
After all the winter's snows
Comes sweet summer back again
Patient souls ne'er wait in vain:
Joy is given for all their woes.
All things else must have their day;
God's love only lasts for aye."
But that does last—the constant wealth, life, and joy of believers. This, this is their creed; not held, indeed, as a dead dogma, but as a living and inspiring faith through the energy of the Spirit of God.
II. IN RELIGION THERE IS A LIFE. "We love." Although we hold fast to the principle that the word "love" means the same as applied to God and to us, yet we cannot shake off a sense, even painful, of the wide contrast in degree. "God loves… we love." That is from sunlight to rushlight in a moment. They are both lights, it is true; but what a space between them! Again, God's love is a self-kindled fire. Our hearts are like fuel in a grate, needing the spark from without ere it will burn. Still, in our measure "we love." But what? whom?
1. We love God. He is our love's supreme Object.
2. We love each other as fellow-believers.
3. We love man as man.
If this is the word in which our Christian life is summed up, three additional matters should be noted ere we pass on to the next main division.
III. IN RELIGION THERE IS A LIFE BECAUSE THERE IS A CREED. We love because he loved. God first loved. Even so. There is the spark, and there only, which kindles ours. We may set this truth on several grounds.
1. We set it on the ground philosophy. We do not believe it possible for any created being to learn to love except through being loved. We do not believe any angel in heaven would have ever come to love God had he not known that God was love. Nor could we.
2. We set it on the ground of history. Take:
3. We set it on the ground of experience. What first moved us to love? What moves us still? What revives us when we are sluggish? Is it not this
"Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,
Which before the cross I spend"?
It is this—it is this which kindles us to a flame. If we love, it is because he first loved us.
APPLICATION
1. It is quite intelligible how some men should come to hate what they call dogma. If a man accepts a form of sound words, and is dead withal, he must not be surprised if his words are thought to be "an empty sound." Can anything be more unutterably offensive than a bundle of dead creeds avowed by dead men? Men ought to hate them. But if a man says, "My religion is this—'I love God and man because God loves me;'" and if he shows it while he says it, men will not despise him or his doctrine either. He will redeem dogma from discredit by inspiring it with life.
2. Whoever expects a living Church without a creed, expects an impossibility. If we let go our faith, we put out our fire. If any Church lets go its hold on the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, its life will not be worth twenty years' purchase.
3. If God first loves, then we should consent to let God's love be first. What is the use of trying to work ourselves into favour with God? The very effort is sin. If God did not love us out of the promptings of his own nature, nothing that we can ever do would be good enough to induce him to love.
4. If God first loves us, and seeks "the love of poor souls," how ungrateful and unjust will it be on our part if we do not love in return!
5. Here is a glorious object on which we may set our gaze—Divine love. Yea, it is a staff on which we can lean, a pillow on which we may repose; nay, more, it is a vast and gorgeous cathedral in which we can worship and adore; it is the soul's home and joy and rest. Here is" the simplicity which is in Christ." Here are theology, religion, and philosophy in one sentence. Theology: God loves. Religion: we love. Philosophy: we love because he loves. Here is that which is simple enough for the child, yet so grand that not the wisest philosopher as such has found, or ever will find, aught worthy to be compared with it.
Love to man the expression of love to God.
Connecting link: The apostle has just declared that the love which pervades believers is owing to God's love to them. He now advances to another and, indeed, to the final step in this paragraph on love, in which he sets forth more powerfully than ever the truth which he has thrice before (1 John 3:10, 1 John 3:17; 1 John 4:8£) indicated, that love to God and love to man are inseparably connected together; that if any man declares that he loves God, while yet he is unconcerned about his brother, "he is a liar;" for adds the apostle, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen." Hence our topic—Love to God and love to man inseparable. Three lines of remark are suggested by the verses before us.
I. HERE IS A DIFFICULTY WHICH WE WILL ENDEAVOUR TO REMOVE. What, indeed, may seem a difficulty to A may net prove so to B, and vice versa. To some, at any rate, there lies a difficulty here. The apostle says, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen," etc.; as if it were so much easier and simpler to do that, and as if his meaning were, "If he cannot do the easier, he cannot do the harder; if he does not love him who is nearest, he cannot love him who is further removed; if he does not love one whom he sees, he cannot love one whom he cannot see," etc. On this Canon Westcott remarks, "It is necessarily easier to love that which is like ourselves than that which we cannot grasp in finite form." True, on the supposition that our brother possessed all moral and spiritual excellences, and that his kindness towards us were at all the counterpart of the love of God; then it would obviously be easier to love the nearer than the more remote. But supposing (as is too often the case) that our "brother" is the reverse of lovable—is hard, cruel, selfish, lustful, bitter; it is very much harder to love him with all his visible vices than to love God with all his glorious perfections, unseen though he is. Is it true in such a ease, if a man love not a vicious brother he cannot love an unseen Being who is Love? We answer, Undoubtedly; for:
II. HERE IS A STATEMENT WHICH IT BEHOVES US CAREFULLY TO PONDER, viz. that God's command to love our brother is so emphatically the command of the gospel that, if it is neglected, God is not loved at all, however profuse the verbal declaration of love may be. "My love must go forth towards those whom I see, as God saw me when he first loved me. And my love must be what his love is—no idle sentiment or barren sympathy, but a love that seeks them, and hears long with them, and waits and longs and prays for their salvation; a love that gives freely and without upbraiding; a love self-sacrificing, self-denying; a love that will lay down life itself to save them. And when they become by grace what by grace I am, I must love them as God loves me, for what I see in them; yes, and in spite of what I see in them,£ too." The love of God is that we keep his commandments (1 John 5:3); but his command is that we love as he loved us. The only being, however, whom we can love with such a love is our brother, whom God has placed before us; one whom we have seen. "And the title 'brother' brings out the idea of that which is God-like in man to which love can be directed. He, therefore, who fails to recognize God as he reveals himself through Christ in man (Matthew 25:40) cannot love God. He has refused the help which God has provided for the expression of love in action" (Westcott, 'Commentary,' in loc.). Let us, then, formulate the statement of the text thus:
1. The love which has God for its supreme Object is an element pervading the whole being, and radiating towards surrounding objects. It is not a capricious sentimentalism; it is a love which is not only towards God, but from him, and like his own.
2. I am to love compassionately and with a view to redeem another, as God has loved me. But the only being whom I can thus love is he who is before me—my brother.
3. It is a command from God that my love to him, the great Unseen, should be shown in this way—by loving the brother who is seen.
4. Therefore there is no other way of practicing love to God than this—loving the seen brother; i.e., not simply our natural brother in the home, nor even our redeemed brother in the Church, but our fallen, sinking, perishing brethren in the "wide, wide world."