SERMON XVII.
For this is the message that ye heard frovi the beginning, that ice should love one another. — 1 John iii. 11.
In these words we have a reason of the last clause in the former verse, why he that lovetli not his brother is not of God. This is his argu- ment : He that keepeth not God's commandments is not of God ; he that loveth not his brother keepeth not God's commandments. The major is evident in itself, the minor is proved in the text, ' For this is the message that ye have heard from the beginning,' &c. In the words we have —
1. A duty, ' That we should love one another.'
2. The authority by which it is recommended to us, ' This is the message that ye have heard from the beginning.' Where —
[1.] It is a message or command, '"This is the message.' [2.] An ancient doctrine or command, ' Which ye have heard from the beginning.'
1. The duty recommended to us, which is mutual love, ' That we .should love one another ; ' that is, that we should love all men, but chiefly that christians should love christians.
2. The authority by which this command is enforced.
[1.] It is the declaration and message, or the commandment. Every- thing we read in the word of God, or hear from the word of God, is a special message sent from God : Acts xiii. 20, ' To you is the word of this salvation sent;' not brought, but sent. I allude to that of Judges iii. 20, ' I have a message from God to thee, and he arose off his seat.' Eveiy message from God bespeaketh its own respect and re- verence.
VeR. 11.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 87
[2.] ' From the beginning *. ' The same phrase is used 1 John ii. 7, ' I write no new commandment unto you, but the old commandment which ye have heard from the beginning.' This is to be understood either —
(1.) From the beginning of their conversion, since ye were called to the knowledge of God. Love is one of the first lessons of Christianity ; for, Gal. V. 6, 'Faith worketh by love ; ' and Eph. i. 15, 'After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints ; ' expressing thereby their Christianity. Ever since they became christians they were possessed with the necessity of this duty.
(2.) From the beginning of the gospel state, or ever since the faith of Christ was published and preached in the world. This is the doctrine so often and so earnestly inculcated by Christ when he was here upon earth : John xiii. 34, 35, ' A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another ; that as I have loved you, so ye love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another ; ' and John xv. 12, ' This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.' And this is often inculcated by our apostle, as one that lay in Christ's bosom, and had a true sense of his Master's doctrine, and did partake largely of his spirit.
(3.) From the beginning of the Mosaical administration, even under the law, this was a duty pressed : Lev. xix. 18, ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as tliyself ; I am the Lord.' And the neighbour was not only the Jewish neighbour, or one that lived within the pale and line of the Jewish communion, as appeareth by the language of the com- mandment : Mat. XX. 16, 17, 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house ; ' which prohibitions imply the gentile as well as the Jewish neighbour. All men, considered as men in respect of nature and creation, are our brethren ; so an Edomite is reckoned a brother, Deut. xxiii. 7. So in respect of commerce and occasion of intercourse they are our neigh- bours ; to them must we perform all acts of love and mercy, as their necessities do require.
(4.) From the beginning of the world, ever since Adam ; for it was not only enforced by Christ's and Moses' law, but implanted and en- grafted on man's heart or the law of nature. It is a matter of natural equity to love our neighbour, to do or not to do to others as we would have done or not done to ourselves, Mat. vii. 12. The gentiles were bound to this by the law of nature. Well, then, you see love to one another was always in great esteem with God ; therefore every one that is born of God should make great conscience of it. If the gentiles, by the law of nature, were bound to love others as themselves, and the Jews by the law of Moses, much more are christians under an obli- gation by the express command of Christ to love one another.
Doct. One great duty which God hath recommended to our obedi- ence is to love one another.
Here I shall show you —
1. What is this love to one another.
2. How God hath recommended it to our obedience.