1 John iv. 18. There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out fear : because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
THE essence of all true religion is love — love to God, working by love to man. Both tables of the law are fulfilled in this : and to bring us to such a state of mind is no less the intent of the Gospel, than of the law itself. St. John, than whom no inspired writer more fully unfolds the glories of the Gospel, abounds, more than any other Apostle, in exhortations to love. The preceding context more particularly
insists on love to man : but the words before us, with the following context, speak rather of love to God. " We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar : for he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen. And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God, love his brother alsoV Were we to interpret the text as speaking of love to man, it would not admit of any satisfactory explana- tion : but, as referring to God, it sets love before us in a very instructive point of view, in that it marks,
I. Its influence, as a principle —
" Fear" is that passion which is chiefly dominant in the breast of fallen man —
[Adam, before his fall, knew nothing of it : but, after his transgression, he fled from the face of God, and hid himself amongst the trees of the garden : and from that time, all the appearances of God or of angels to men have generated fear in the first instance ; so that the persons most favoured with such visions, have needed to be encouraged by that reviving expression, " Fear notb." Indeed, the whole religion of the heathen world has its foundation in fear ; love to their deities is never an operative principle in their hearts. Even amongst ourselves, till we are truly converted to God, the Supreme Being is rather an object of fear than of love ; insomuch that we love not to hear of him, or to reflect on our future appear- ance before him. It is on this account that all which relates to God, his perfections, his purposes, yea, and even the mys- teries of his grace and the wonders of his love, are, by universal consent, banished from our mutual intercourse and daily con- versation : and, however cheerful a society may have been in their communications with each other, the introduction of such topics as death, judgment, heaven, and hell, would cast a damp upon it, and induce a gloom, or a contemptuous smile, on every countenance. The Scripture tells us, that this is the case with all ; that " men, through the fear of death, are all their life-time subject to bondage0:" and that they are "like the troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt," utterly destitute of any solid peace or restd.
There may, indeed, be in men a thoughtless indifference :
a ver. 19—21. » Luke i. 12, 13, 29, 30.
. c Heb. ii. 15. d Isai. lvii. 20, 21.