The Pulpit Commentary — 1 John — Section 60

ye ba.ve love one to another" (,John xiii. 34, 35;. "In thi3 one thing," says Stier, "nnd in no other, is discipleship approved. It is not knowledge which avails, not a so- called faith, even though, like that of Judas, before the devil entered him, it could caRt out devils a.nd remove mountains; rather is this knowledge and this genuine faith known by this love. As little avails the confession of my Name, or of all the truth concerning my Person and my kin~dom. Where this walking in the truth is not found, the confession becomes an all the more frightful lie. As the disciples of the Pharisees were known by their phylacteries, and as the disciples of John were known by their fasting, and every school by its shibboleth-the mark of the disciples of Christ is to be love. And that a genuine love, as Christ loveth." II. THE EXERCISE OF DROTIIERLY LOVE PTIOMOTES Tm: STABILITY OF THE CRnISTIAN LIFE. "He that loveth bis brother abideth in the light." Love is an expression of faith; H also increases and invigorates faith. The outgoing of the heart in holy affection to the Christian brotherhood strengthens the new life within the heart. Pare affection for others augments the wealth of our being. "The heart grows rich in giving." The exercise of brotherly love promotes the sanctity and strength of the entire Christian life, the susceptibility of the soul to Divine influences, its firmness in holy principles, and fidelity and facility in Christian practices. III. THE EXERCISE OF BROTHERLY LOVE PROMOTES THE SECURITY OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. "There is none occasion of etum b\ing in him." 1. Brotherly love will give no occasion of stumbling to others. Love will keep us from doing any wrong to others, from giving any cause of offence to others, or from doing anything whereby they may be led astray from the path of rectitude or caused to stumble in that path. •• Love worketh no ill to his neighbour." 2. Brothe1·ly love will preserve us from stumbling ourselves. Love is not quick to take offence. Love is forbearing, patient, humble; and humility walks peacefully and safely where pride painfully stumbles and falls. "Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself," etc. (1 Cor. xiii. 4-7). IV. '!'HE ADSEKCE OF BROTJIERT,Y LOVE IS AN EVIDENCE OF A T.IFE OF srn, NOTWITH- BTANDIKG A PROFESSION OF LIFE IN TilE LIGHT. "He that saith he is in the light, and bateth bis brother, is in the darkness even until now. . . . He that hateth his brother is in the darkness," etc. St. John mentions no middle condition between love of the brethren and hatred of them. As Diisterdieck says, " On the one side is God, on the other the world : here is life, there is death ( eh. iii. 14): here love, there hate, i.e. murder (eh. iiL 15); there is no medium. In the space between, is nothing. Life may as yet be merely elementary and fragmentary, love may be as yet weak and poor ; but still, life in God and its necessary demonstration in love, is present really and truly, and the Word of our Lord is true, • He that is not against me is with me' (Luke ix. 50): and on the other side, the life according to the flesh, the attachment to the world, and the necessary action of this selfishness by means of hatred, may be much hidden, may be craftily covered and with splendid outer surface; but in the secret depth of the man, there, where sprillg the real fountains of his moral life, is not God but the world ; the man is yet in death, and can consequently love nothing but himself and must bate bis brother, and then that other Word of the Lord is true, 'He that is not for me is against me' (Luke xi. 23). For a man can only be either for or agains~ Christ., ancl consequently can only have either love or hate towards bis brother." Mark the characteristics of this life from which brotherly love is absent, as they are here sketched. 1. Darkness ef moral condition. He "is in the darkness "-in it as the element of his moral life. 2. Darkness of moral action. He "walketh in the dark- ness." His course of life and conduct is in keeping with the gloom of error and sin. 3. Darkness as to destination. He "knoweth not whither he goetb." He knows neither the way he is walking in nor the end to which it leads. 4. Darlmess of the spiritual being. "The darkness bath blinded his eyes." Persons who have long been imprisoned in darkness have frequently lost their physical vision. So here it is sni,l tha.t the moral darkness in which the sinner dwells hns destroyed bis spiritual vision ; ar.d he walks on in moral night, imagining that he is walking in the light of day (cf. John ix. 41).-W. J. Vera. 12-14.-Seasons of life and their approprhte spiritual experiences. "I write  66 THE FIRST EPISTLE GENE~AL OF JOHN. [err. n, 1-29.