10. THE SCRIPTURES AND
LOVE
In earlier chapters we have sought to point out some of the ways by which we
may ascertain whether or not our reading and searching of the Scriptures are
really being blessed to our souls. Many are deceived on this matter,
mistaking an eagerness to acquire knowledge for a spiritual love of the
Truth (2 Thess. 2:10), and assuming that addition to their store of learning
is the same thing as growth in grace. A great deal depends upon the end or
aim we have before us when turning to God’s Word. If it be simply to
familiarize ourselves with its contents and become better versed in its
details, it is likely that the garden of our souls will remain barren; but
if with the prayerful desire to be rebuked and corrected by the Word, to be
searched by the Spirit, to conform our hearts to its holy requirements, then
we may expect a Divine blessing.
In the preceding chapters we have endeavored to single out the vital things
by which we may discover what progress we are making in personal godliness.
Various criteria have been given, which it becomes both writer and reader
honestly to measure themselves by. We have pressed such tests as: Am I
acquiring a greater hatred of sin, and a practical deliverance from its
power and pollution? Am I obtaining a deeper acquaintance with God and His
Christ? Is my prayer-life healthier? Are my good works more abundant? Is my
obedience fuller and gladder? Am I more separated from the world in my
affections and ways? Am I learning to make a right and profitable use of
God’s promises, and so delighting myself in Him that His joy is my daily
strength? Unless I can truthfully say that these are (in some measure) my
experience, then it is greatly to be feared that my study of the Scriptures
is profiting me little or nothing.
It hardly seems fitting that these chapters should be concluded until one
has been devoted to the consideration of Christian love. The extent to which
this spiritual grace is, or is not, being cultivated and regulated affords
another index to the measure in which my perusal of God’s Word is helping me
spiritually. No one can read the Scriptures with any measure of attention
without discovering how much they have to say about love, and therefore it
behooves each one of us prayerfully and carefully to ascertain whether or
not his or her love be really a spiritual one, and whether it be in a
healthy state and is being exercised aright.
The subject of Christian love is far too comprehensive to consider all its
varied phases within the compass of a single chapter. Properly we should
begin with contemplating the exercise of our love toward God and His Christ,
but as this has been at least touched upon in preceding chapters we shall
now waive it. Much too, might be said about the natural love which we owe to
our fellow-men, who belong to the same family as we do, but there is less
need to write on that theme than on what is now before our mind. Here we
propose to confine our attention to spiritual love to the brethren, the
brethren of Christ.
1. We profit from the Word when we perceive the great importance of
Christian love. Nowhere is this brought out more emphatically than in 1
Corinthians chapter 13. There the Holy Spirit tells us that though a
professing Christian can speak fluently and eloquently upon Divine things,
if has not love, he is like metal, which, though it makes a noise when
struck, is lifeless. That though he can prophesy, understand all mysteries
and knowledge, and has faith which brings miracles to pass, yet if he be
lacking in love, he is spiritually a nonentity. Yes, that though he be so
benevolent as to give all his worldly possessions to feed the poor, and
yield his body to a martyr’s death, yet if he have not love, it profits him
nothing. How high a value is here placed upon love, and how essential for me
to make sure I possess it!
Said our Lord, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you
have love one to another" (John 13:35). By Christ’s making it the badge of
Christian discipleship, we see again the great importance of love. It is an
essential test of the genuineness of our profession: we cannot love Christ
unless we love His brethren, for they are all bound up in the same "bundle
of life" (1 Samuel 25:29) with Him. Love to those whom He has redeemed is a
sure evidence of spiritual and supernatural love to the Lord Jesus Himself.
Where the Holy Spirit has wrought a supernatural birth, He will draw forth
that nature into exercise, He will produce in the hearts and lives and
conduct of the saints supernatural graces, one of which is loving all who
are Christ’s for Christ’s sake.
2. We profit from the Word when we learn to detect the sad perversions of
Christian love. As water will not rise above its own level, so the natural
man is incapable of understanding, still less appreciating, that which is
spiritual (1 Cor. 2:14). Therefore we should not be surprised when
unregenerate professors mistake human sentimentality and carnal pleasantries
for spiritual love. But sad it is to see some of God’s own people living on
so low a plane that they confuse human amiability and affability with the
queen of the Christian graces. While it is true that spiritual love is
characterized by meekness and gentleness, yet is it something very different
from and vastly superior to the courtesies and kindnesses of the flesh.
How many a doting father has withheld the rod from his children, under the
mistaken notion that real affection for them and the chastising of them were
incompatible! How many a foolish mother, who disdained all corporal
punishment, has boasted that "love" rules in her home! One of the most
trying experiences of the writer, in his extensive travels, has been to
spend a season in homes where the children have been completely spoilt. It
is a wicked perversion of the word "love" to apply it to moral laxity and
parental looseness. But this same pernicious idea rules the minds of many
people in other connections and relations. If a servant of God rebukes their
fleshly and worldly ways, if he presses the uncompromising claims of God, he
is at once charged with being "lacking in love." Oh, how terribly are
multitudes deceived by Satan on this important subject!
3. We profit from the Word when we are taught the true nature of Christian
love. Christian love is a spiritual grace abiding in the souls of the saints
alongside faith and hope (1 Cor. 13:13). It is a holy disposition wrought in
them when they are regenerated (1 John 5:1). ft is nothing less than the
love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). It is
a righteous principle which seeks the highest good of others. It is the very
reverse of that principle of self-love and self-seeking which is in us by
nature. It is not only an affectionate regard of all who bear the image of
Christ, but also a powerful desire to promote their welfare. It is not a
fickle sentiment which is easily offended, but an abiding dynamic which
"many waters" of cold indifference or "floods" of disapproval can neither
quench nor drown (Song of Sol. 8:7). Though coming far short in degree it is
the same in essence as His of whom we read, "Having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end" (John 13:1).
There is no safer and surer way of obtaining a right conception of the
nature of Christian love than by making a thorough study of its perfect
exemplification in and by the Lord Jesus. When we say a "thorough study," we
mean the taking of a comprehensive survey of all that is recorded of Him in
the four Gospels, and not the limiting of ourselves to a few favorite
passages or incidents. As this is done, we discover that His love was not
only benevolent and magnanimous, thoughtful and gentle, unselfish and
self-sacrificing, patient and unchanging, but that many other elements also
entered into it. Love could deny an urgent request (John 11:6), rebuke His
mother (John 2:4), use a whip (John 2: 15), severely upbraid His doubting
disciples (Luke 24:25), and denounce hypocrites (Matt. 23:13-33). Love can
be stern (Matt. 16:23), yes, angry (Mark 3 :5). Spiritual love is a holy
thing: it is faithful to God; it is uncompromising toward all that is evil.
4. We profit from the Word when we discover that Christian love is a Divine
communication. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we
love the brethren" (1 John 3:14). "Love to the brethren is the fruit and
effect of a new and supernatural birth, wrought in our souls by the Holy
Spirit, as the blessed evidence of our having been chosen in Christ by the
Divine Father, before the world was. To love Christ and His, and our
brethren in Him, is congenial to that Divine nature He has made us the
partakers of by His Holy Spirit. .. . This love of the brethren must be a
peculiar love, such as none but the regenerate are the subjects of, and
which none but they can exercise, or the apostle would not have so
particularly mentioned it; it is such that those who have it not are in a
state of unregeneracy; so it follows, "he that loves not his brother abides
in death" " (S. E. Pierce).
Love for the brethren is far, far more than finding agreeable the society of
those whose temperaments are similar to or whose views accord with my own.
It pertains not to mere nature, but is a spiritual and supernatural thing.
It is the heart being drawn out to those in whom I perceive something of
Christ. Thus it is very much more than a party spirit; it embraces all in
whom I can see the image of God’s Son. It is, therefore, a loving them for
Christ’s sake, for what I see of Christ in them. It is the Holy Spirit
within attracting and alluring me with Christ indwelling my brethren and
sisters. Thus real Christian love is not only a Divine gift, but is
altogether dependent upon God for its invigoration and exercise. We need to
pray daily that the Holy Spirit will call forth into action and
manifestation, toward both God and His people, that love which He has shed
abroad in our hearts.
5. We profit from the Word when we rightly exercise Christian love. This is
done, not by seeking to please our brethren and ingratiate ourselves in
their esteem, but when we truly seek their highest good. "By this we know
that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his
commandments" (1 John 5:2). What is the real test of my personal love to God
Himself? It is my keeping of His commandments (see John 14:15,21,24;
15:10,14). The genuineness and strength of my love to God are not to be
measured by my words, nor by the lustiness with which I sing His praises,
but by my obedience to His Word. The same principle holds good in my
relations with my brethren.
"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and
keep His commandments." If I am glossing over the faults of my brethren and
sisters, if I am walking with them in a course of self-will and
self-pleasing, then I am not "loving" them. "You shall not hate your brother
in your heart: you shall in any wise rebuke your neighbor, and not suffer
sin upon him" (Lev. 19:17). Love is to be exercised in a Divine way, and
never at the expense of my failing to love God; in fact, it is only when God
has His proper place in my heart that spiritual love can be exercised by me
toward my brethren. True spiritual love does not consist in gratifying them,
but in pleasing God and helping them; and I can only help them in the path
of God’s commandments.
Petting and pampering one another is not brotherly love; exhorting one
another to press forward in the race that is set before us, and speaking
words (enforced by the example of our daily walk) which will encourage them
to "look off unto Jesus," would be much more helpful. Brotherly love is a
holy thing, and not a fleshly sentiment or a loose indifference as to the
path we are treading. God’s "commandments" are expressions of His love, as
well as of His authority, and to ignore them, even while seeking to be
kindly affectioned one to another, is not "love" at all. The exercise of
love is to be in strict conformity to the revealed will of God. We are to
love "in the truth" (3 John 1).
6. We profit from the Word when we are taught the varied manifestations of
Christian love. To love our brethren and manifest the love in all kinds of
ways is our bounden duty. But at no point can we do this more truly and
effectually, and with less affectation and ostentation, than by having
fellowship with them at the throne of grace. There are brethren and sisters
in Christ in the four corners of the earth, about the details of whose
trials and conflicts, temptations and sorrows, I know nothing; yet I can
express my love for them, and pour out my heart before God on their behalf,
by earnest supplication and intercession. In no other way can the Christian
more manifest his affectionate regard toward his fellow-pilgrims than by
using all his interests in the Lord Jesus in their behalf, in-treating His
mercies and favors unto them.
"Whoever has this world’s good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up
his affections 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" (1 John 3:17,18). Many of God’s people are very poor in this
world’s goods. Sometimes they wonder why it is so; it is a great trial to
them. One reason why the Lord permits this is that others of His Saints may
have their compassion drawn out and minister to their temporal needs from
the abundance with which God has furnished them. Real love is intensely
practical: it considers no office too mean, no task too humbling, where the
sufferings of a brother can be relieved. When the Lord of love was here upon
earth, He had thought for the bodily hunger of the multitude and the comfort
of His disciples" feet!
But there are some of the Lord’s people so poor that they have very little
indeed to share with others. What, then, may they do? Why, make the
spiritual concerns of all the saints their own; interest themselves on their
behalf at the throne of grace! We know by our own cases and circumstances
what the feelings, sorrows, and complaints of other saints must be the
subjects of. We know from sad experience how easy it is to give way to a
spirit of discontent and murmuring. But we also know how, when we have cried
unto the Lord for His quieting hand to be laid upon us, and when He has
brought some precious promise to our remembrance, what peace and comfort
have come to our heart. Then let us beg Him to be equally gracious to all
His distressed saints. Let us seek to make their burdens our own, and weep
with those who weep, as well as rejoice with those who rejoice. Thus shall
we express real love for their people in Christ by entreating their Lord and
our Lord to remember them with everlasting kindness.
This is how the Lord Jesus is now manifesting His love to His saints: "He
ever lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25). He makes their cause
and care His own. He is entreating the Father on their behalf. None is
forgotten by Him: every lone sheep is borne upon the heart of the Good
Shepherd. Thus, by expressing our love to the brethren in daily prayers for
the supply of their varied needs, we are brought into fellowship with our
great High Priest. Not only so, but the saints will be endeared to us
thereby: our very praying for them as the beloved of God will increase our
love and esteem for them as such. We cannot carry them on our hearts before
the throne of grace without cherishing in our own hearts a real affection
for them. The best way of overcoming a bitter spirit to a brother who has
offended is to be much in prayer for him.
7. We profit from the Word when we are taught the proper cultivation of
Christian love. We suggest two or three rules for this. First, recognizing
at the outset that just as there is much in you (in me) which will severely
try the love of the brethren, so there will do not be a little in them to
test our love. "Forbearing one another in love" (Eph. 4:3) is a great
admonition on this subject which each of us needs to lay to heart. It is
surely striking to note that the very first quality of spiritual love named
in , Corinthians 13 is that it "suffers long" (verse 4).
Second, the best way to cultivate any virtue or grace is to exercise it.
Talking and theorizing about it avails nothing unless it be carried into
action. Many are the complaints heard today about the littleness of the love
which is being manifested in many places: that is all the more reason why I
should seek to he? a better example! Suffer not the coldness and unkindness
of others to dampen your love, but "overcome evil with good" (Romans.
12:21). Prayerfully ponder 1 Corinthians 13 at least once a week.
Third, above all, see to it that your own heart basks in the light and
warmth of God’s love. Like begets like. The more you are truly occupied with
the unwearying, unfailing, unfathomable love of Christ to you, the more will
your heart be drawn out in love to those who are His. A beautiful
illustration of this is found in the fact that the particular apostle who
wrote most upon brotherly love was he who leaned upon the Master’s bosom.
The Lord grant all requisite grace to both reader and writer (than whom none
more needs to heed them) to observe these rules, to the praise of the glory
of His grace, and to the good of His beloved people.