The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 2 — Section 269

they are caTlcd is con-trated ,n brotherl~ love, " This is my comml\ndment, Thnt ye love one another, as I hnve loved you. (1) The commandment. (a) It ls a now oorumandment (John xiii. 84). (b) It is au old romme.ndment (2 John 6), (c) If C'ommends itself to the moral nature of m,m. (d) It is the mBinspring or sociBl he.ppl- ne~s. (2) Mark the model or pBttem: "As I hBve loved you." Jesns lovod his ,H,ciples with a love which was (a) strong, (b) tender, (c) patient, (d) enduring, (e) solf• i;acrificing. " Greater love bath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for hie friends." Ill. h"TillA<JV OF TB RELATION WHIOB CHRIST HAS ESTABLISHED BETWEEN IDMSELI!' AND HIS DIBCIPLE8. "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. I no longer call you servants; becaW1e the 11ervant knoweth not what his lord doetb: but I have called yon friends; for all things that I have heBrd of my Father I have made known t.o you." l. The rel,a,ti,Qn of God to his people under the Law was tl1at of Mastff' and servant. But Jesns establishes a··new relation, which heightens the dignity of discipleship. 2. The conditton of tbe new relation was a free, unrestrained confi- dence between Chnst and his disciples respecting tlui full knowledge of Divine thing,. 3. This .fuller 1.-nowledge woul.d of i,wJj enhance the intensity of love. IV. 'l'u DIVINE CHOICE, WITH ITS BLESSED DESIGN AND EFFEar&. "Ye have not chosen me, but l have chosen -you." 1. Whether the elution is to ralvation or apostle- ship, the gro11nd or cause was not in man. The blessed initiative was taken by Christ. 2. Design of the eleaion. •• And appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit." These words imply (1) that the disciples should take an indrpendent pla.ce for themselves (vrci-y,rrE, go away); (2) that they should be abundant and effective in le.hours; (3) and that the effect of their labours should be lasting. 3. Encouragement to labour. " That whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name, he may give it you." A fruitful obedience has its reward in gracious a.nswers to pmyer. Vers. 17-27.-The disciples and tlui world. Our Lord turns to a new thought-the relation of his disciples to the world. L THE SOOPE Ol!' ALL Cmwrr's TEACHING IS TO DEVELOP LOVE. " These things I command you, that ye may love one another." 1. This love is to be the characteristic of the new kingdom, and thus the strong attraction of the gospel. 2. Yet, essentially noble as it u., it will chal.umge tlui hostility of a worid out of all sympathy with Christ. . IL '.l.'nE CAUSE OF THE woBLD's BATBED TO BELIEVEBS. "If the world bate you, ye know that it hat.ed me before it hated yotL" 1. It is a terrible indictment against the JeUJll that they Bhoul,d, reprorent ia their relations to <Jhrist the overt hatred of" the world." 2. Tl,e haired m question. is a proof of tlui union between <Jhri8t and hi, ducipU!IS. He is the Head, they are the members of the persecuted body. 3. The thought of this union ought to strengthen tlui disciplea in view of the worlrl)s hatred. 4. The pri,nciple of this hatred. " If ye were of the world, the world would love its ·own." (1) 'l'he world's love is selfish; it loves what is consonant to itself in idea and feeli~g. (2) The disciples, not being of the world, but "chosen out of the world," had the dis- tinction of attracting to themselves the natural hostility of a world out of all sympathy with their hopes. 5. The worWts hatred traced to its t1-u,e source. " But all these. things will they do UDt.o you for my Name's sake, because they know not him that sent me." (1) The disciples were led to expect persecution as their inevitable lot. (2) It would be immediately caused by their attachment t.o Christ's cause. (3) Its true source was the world's ignorance of God. IIL THE BEl!PONSillILITY OF THE WORLD FOR ITS HATRED. It had no excuse for its hostility. L Tliere was the testimony of <Jhrist's teaching, malci'll,fl the Father known, which would judge the world. "If I had not come and spoken to them, they he.d not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin." (1) It is a fearful thing to sin against light. {2) It is impossible to escape the just judgment of God. 2. There waa tl,;, testimony of his miracles. "If I had not done among them the works which none other lIWl did they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and bated me and my Father." '(1) The miracles were like no other miracles in respect of their nature 11nd effect.a. (2) The miracles were the revelation of the Father through the Son ; yet the Jews nscribed them to the power of evi1 (3) '!'he prophetic solution of their hatred. "But this is that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their Law, en, xv. 1-27.] 'rHE GOSPEL AUCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 27!) --------------------------------- - They hntod me without a cause." There was nothiug to justify the hatred of sncb a pure and loving Spirit. IV, THE NEW POWER THAT 18 TO SUSTAIN THE DISCIPLP:8 IN THEffi CONFLICT WITH THE WORLD-THE HoLY GHOST, 1. The mission of the OfYTn/orter. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proccedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." (1) The qualificfltions of the Comforter for his office, (a) He proceedR eternally from the Father. HiH witness, therefore, will be that of the Father himself. (b) Ho will be sent by the Son. This implies the approaching departure of Christ to another world. (c) He possesses, com- muuicntes, and applies the truth; for he is the Spirit of Truth. (2) The testimony of the Comforter. "He shall testify of me," (a) To the apostles, who will thenceforth understand the truth; (b) to the world, in the dispersion of its darkness, in the new light thrown upon the Person and work of Christ, and in all the blessings of an understood gospel. '' He witnesseth with our spirits that wo are the children of God" (Rom. viii. 16), 2. The testimony of the apostlea themselves. "And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." (1) It was necessary to have their personal testimony respecting the facts of his life from the beginning of his ministry. Christianity is more than a life; it is more than a system of doctrines ; it is a record of historical facts, which give the doctrines all their meaning, and the life all its blessed- ness. (2) 'l'he gospel was to be received by faith in all future ages. The earliest witnesses were to guide the faith of the Church. (3) The apostles accordingly dis- tinguished between their own experience and the internal witD.esa of the Spirit (Acts v, 32).