usage of dydzrn love, in the New Testament, with the subjective genitive.* The object is more commonly expressed by eis to- wards, or to. See 1 Thess. iii. 12; Col. i.4; 1 Pet. iv. 8. Still stronger is John’s treatment of the subject in ch. iv. Here we have, ver. 9, the manifestation of the love of God in us (év uév). By our life in Christ and our love to God we are a manifestation of God’s love. Directly following this is a definition of the essential nature of love. ‘‘ Jn this is love; i.e., herein consists love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us” (ver. 10). Our mutual love is a proof that God dwells in us. God dwelling in us, His love is perfected in us (ver. 12). The latter clause, it would seem, must be explained according to ver. 10. Then (ver. 16), ““We have known and believed the love that God hath in us” (see on John xvi. 22, on the phrase have love). “ God is love ;” that is His nature, and He imparts this nature to be the sphere in which His chil- dren dwell. ‘He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.” Finally, our love is engendered by His love to us. ‘“ We love Him because He first loved us ” (ver. 19).
In harmony with this is John xv. 9. “As the Father loved me, I also loved you. Continue ye in my love.” My love must be explained by J loved you. This is the same idea of divine love as the sphere or element of renewed being; and this idea is placed, as in the passage we are considering, in direct connection with the keeping of the divine command- ments. “If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love.”
This interpretation does not exclude man’s love to God. On the contrary, it includes it. The love which God has, is re- vealed as the love of God in the love of His children towards Him, no less than in His manifestations of love to them. The idea of divine love is thus complex. Love, in its very essence, is reciprocal. Its perfect ideal requires two parties. It is not enough to tell us, as a bare, abstract truth, that God is love. The truth must be rounded and filled out for us by the apprecia-
* i.é., the genitive case, of God, of the Father, represents God as the subject of the emotion.