f Eph. v. 1. the Greek, s 1 John hi. 14, 15. h ver. 16, 17.
1 John iv. 16, 17. He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment : because as he is, so are we in this world.
THAT " God is love," is a truth that can admit of no doubt. The proper improvement to be made of
this truth is also obvious : if he be love, we should love him, trust in him, serve him, submit to him. But there is one improvement, of this subject which does not readily occur to the mind : it is this : If God be love, we should be careful to imitate and resemble him. Now this, though less obvious than the other deductions, is the point on which St. John principally dwells : " Beloved, let us love one ano- ther : for love is of God ; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God : for God is lovea." The same line of argument he pursues in the words before us ; shewing that our conformity to God, in this great character of love, will be the measure of our nearness to him, and of our confidence before him.
The words before us will lead me to mark,
I. The resemblance which the believer bears to God in love — The Apostle having said that " God is love," adds, " As he is, so are we in this world." Now, in his nature we cannot resemble the Supreme Being ; but in his operations we may. We must therefore mark,
1. The operations of God's love —
[Love, though a simple idea, may be profitably considered under a threefold distinction : a love of benevolence, a love of beneficence, and a love of complacency. This distinction will lead us to make some discriminations which are of great importance to a full understanding of the subject. We say then of God, that his benevolence is universal. There is not a creature in the universe which he did not originally form for happiness ; and to which he does not wish happiness, so far as it is capable of enjoying it. The fallen angels are gone beyond the reach of happiness ; as are all those also who have brought upon themselves the final sentence of God's righteous indig- nation. But there is not a sinner whom he is not willing to save ; and whom he would not save, provided he repented of his sins, and sought for mercy in God's appointed way. God has sworn to this ; saying, " As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner; but rather that he turn from his wickedness, and live. Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, O house of
3 ver. 7, 8.
2459.] believer's resemblance to god in love. 503
Israel ?" So far is God from desiring the death of a sinner, that " he willeth that all should come to repentance, and live:" and when any will not repent, he takes up a lamentation over them; saying, " O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my waysM" Our blessed Lord's weeping over Jerusalem, even after that it was given up to final desolation, gives us a just picture of Jehovah's mind to- wards the most abandoned of the human racec.
As God's benevolence is universal, so is his beneficence un- bounded : " He opens his hand, and fills all things living with plenteousness." Of his common bounties all partake, in rich abundance : " He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good; and sends his rain upon the just and upon the unjust." That greatest of all mercies, the gift of his only dear Son, was bestowed on all, as is the gift also of his Holy Spirit: for, as Christ died for alld, so does the Holy Spirit strive with alle; there not being a good desire in the heart of any man, which has not been formed there by his all-powerful agency ; and formed there in order to the bestowment of still greater good, if those first motions had been duly improved. Nor should all the glory and blessedness of heaven itself be withheld from a human being, if only he would humble himself before God, and seek for mercy, and grace, and strength, in God's ap- pointed way.