iii. Epistle of James.— The Epistle of James by calling the commandment of love ' the royal law ' (2^) places love in the centre of religion. This love is not merely love for men but love to God (2^). It chooses God and rejects the world, the love for God and the friendship of the world being mutuallj' exclusive (4^). It manifests itself in blessing God (3^). Behind this love for God, however, St. James, no less than St. Paul and St. John, posits the love of God for the sinner. God is Father of believers (39). They that love God are chosen of God (2^). The Divine love is a love of mercy ; even in the Day of Judgment it retains the form of mercy (2^* 5^"). It is a jealous love, which requires the un- divided affection of its object (4*). An echo of the Synoptical preaching of Jesus may be found in this that St. James sees the love of God demonstrated in the gifts not merely of redemption, but likewise of providence (1'^).
iv. Epistles of Peter.— The Epistles of Peter dwell on the love of Christ rather than on that of God. Christ's love is a love of self-denial (1 P 2-^) and of benevolence for evil-doers (3^^). To it corre- sponds love for Christ in the heart of believers. St. Peter shows that this love is strong enough to assert and maintain itself in the face of the in- visibleness of Christ (l^; cf. 1 Jn 4-'"-). The love for God and Christ is consistent with and accom- panied by fear (1 P !"• ^S). God's love is implied in the mercy which lies behind regeneration (P). God is the Father of believers (1") ; they are the Hock of God (5^) ; He (or Christ) is the Shepherd
of their souls (2-°). The longsuflering of God, as a fruit of the Divine love, is mentioned in 2 P 3^.
V. Hebrews.— The theme of the Epistle to the Hebrews — the perfect mediation of priestly ap- proach unto God — coupled with the writer's vivid perception of the majesty of God brings it about that the love of God remains in the background. The Epistle emphasizes the fear of God even for believers (4'- ""^^ 12-'*). Still believers are sons of God (210 12^), brethren of Christ (2"- 12. H). Qod loves His children as the Father of Spirits (12s-i*'). He is the God of His people in the pregnant sense (11^"). The subsumption of the greater part of the religious consciousness under faith brings it about that the love of Christians is less spoken of here than elsewhere in the NT. It is mentioned in 6^" as a love shown towards God's name, i.e. towards God, in the service of the brethren. The Epistle, on the other hand, makes much of the love of Christ for believers as it assumes the form of mercy. This mercy is, however, not motived by the mere sutt'er- ing as such, but specifically by the moral aspect of the sutler ing. It is compassion with the moral weakness and danger arising from suflering, be- cause suffering becomes a source of temptation. Christ can exercise this mercy because He Himself has experienced the tempting power of suffering
(218 415)_
vi.JoHANNINE literature. — There still remains to be considered the .Joliannine literature including the Gosj)el, so far as the statements of the Evan- gelist himself are concerned. Both the Gospel and the First Epistle represent love as the ultimate source and the ultimate goal of Christianity. There is this difference, that what is in the Gospel related to Christ as love of Christ and love for Christ, is in the Epistle related to God in both directions. In the Apocalj^pse love to Jesus appears in 2*, love of Jesus in P 3''. ' The love of God ' is not uni- formly, as in St. Paul, the love which God shows, but partly this (1 Jn 2^ 49-12) a,nd partly also the love cherished towards God (Jn 5^-, 1 Jn 2'^ 3" 5=*). Possibly the construction is meant as an inclusive one : ' the love wliich God has made known and which answers to His nature ' (so B. F. Westcott, The Epistles of St. John, 1883, p. 49). Love is to St. John as to St. Paul a specifically Divine thing. Wherever it appears in man, it must be traced back to God, and particularly to God's love (1 Jn 410. 19) jj;g source lies in regeneration (4''). The Divine primordial love is grace, not motived by the excellence of human qualities, for it expressed itself in giving Christ as a propitiation for sin (4^* ^o). The supreme manifestation of God's love is the gift of Christ, and Christ's giving of His own life for man (3^'' 4*, Rev 3''). Hence the Gospel char- acterizes the love which Jesus showed in His Death as an ayaTrdv els riXos ('to the uttermost'). The giving of the Spirit of God is an act of love not merely because the Spirit is an inestimable gift, but because in the Spirit God communicates Him- self ; herein lies the essence of love (1 Jn 3^ 4'^). The highest embodiment of this redemptive love is the state of sonship (1 Jn 3^). The Apocalypse uses for this, as extending to the Church collectively, the OT figure of the bride of God (Rev 19''2P-9). Sonship is not represented, as in St. Paul, as awaiting its eschatological consumma- tion, but rather as issuing into a higher, yet un- known, state (1 Jn 3'^). The summing up of the Christian life in love is represented as ' a new com- mandment, ' which is at the same time old ( 2''* ^ 3"- ^). It is old in so far as it goes back to the creation (' from the beginning' [2^ 3", 2 Jn*-*]) ; it is new in so far as through Jesus and His work it has now become an actuality in the life and experience of Christians ; hence ' it is tnie in him and in you ' (1 Jn 2^). In both the Gospel and the First Epistle