YJ. ".IIEN DEING BCIR:S- OF GoD, WE LOVE LIKE IIIM, WE ABE BROUGHT IN'l'O F~L1,0wsmp 'll""ITII H!M· (Vers. 12, 13.) When God hath given us of hie own Spirit oJ l<>rn, s,1 tLat we m our measure come to love like God, then we know that "we cln:cll _in him, and be in _us." There is a loving and abiding intercommunion. We, being m full s\mpathr with God, must needs y~arn to pour forth ourEelvee to others, as God bnth g1"en himself to us. And this outgoing of ourselves to ocr brother is a sure pledge of God being in us, and we in him,l VII. IN PROPORTION AS TOIS IS TIIE CASE, WE KNOW Goo. (Ver. 12.) The first and ~ccond clauses of this verse are very closely connected together. "No man bath ,een God at any time, [but] if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in ~s; " and so we come to know God, thou~h no one hath ever seen him. We know him through love whom we cannot behold by the sight (cf. Matt. v. 8). Only lo,e can possibly read lov~. A cold heart can never understand a warm one, but o~c warm hc!irt can read another. So we come to know God through learning from l11ru to lo'ce as he )o'ccs. And the more complete our devotion to man for God's sake, the fuller and richer will be onr knowledge of God's infinite love. YIU. THE P.EART THAT LOVETH NOT CANNOT KNOW GoD. (Ver. 8.) The lov" of Go:.! is so va,-t that it embraceth "a great multitude which no man can number." It is sn minute that it yearns for" one sinner n to repeut, It is so active that it sent iLs noblest embas~y to invite the wanderers to return. It is so tender that it would not that "one of these little ones should perish." How can a man who does not love understand all that 1 It is not that God closes bis heart against the man; it is the man that steels his heart against God. And until the warmth of Divine love melts the thick-ribbed ice of his frozen soul, no stream of love will ever flow from him to gladden and fertilize a world. Note: See what it is will estrange a man for ever from his God, and will shut him up in hopeless ignorance of God-unlovingness; simply this. Objection: But are you not reasoning in a circle? You say man does not love till God's love kiudles his, and yet that he cannot know God till he loves I Which is first? Surely here. is a. vicious circle. No; not at all. God's love goes out first. 'l.'hat love is manifested in the work of Christ. \Vhen we were yet sinners Christ died for us. "He that would be warm must keep near the fire," said Matthew Henry. Even so, let the cold frozen heart stay near the cross, till, feeling the warmth of love there, it is set aglow. Then, being set •aglow by learning of the love of God, he will at once begin to understand the God of love!
Ver. 13.2-God-likeness the seal of a Divine indwelling. Connecting linl,: This verse is closely allied to the verse preceding. Though no one has at auy time seen God, yet God is within ue if bis love i~ reproduced in UB by the new birth of the Holy Ghost. Hence our present topic--Conformity to God the proof that God i's t~e Life of O'Ur lives.3 'l.'here is in some respects a considerable resemblance between this verse and eh. iiL 24. But the student de.iring to be exact in his unfolding of the writer's words will note (1) that the complexion of words is much modified by their connection; and (2) that often as the apostle seems to use approximately the same words, yet what seems at first sight to be but a very slight variation will, when be catches the precise hue of each clause, start him on a distinctly different line of thought and teaching. Here, set in relation to the context, the apostle's teaching maD;ifestly is this-In possessing, and in being possessed by, a. spirit of love, we are conscious of a life that is from God himself, who is Love. I. HERE IS A FACT ABBEBTED. "He hath given us of his Spirit." Both the Gospel and the Epistles of John a.re 'frinitarian. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, all are there, each fulfilling bis own part in the saving work. '!'he Father the Orig)n, the Sou tbe Channel, the Spirit the .Agent, in the redemptive economy. The Father sends the Son. 'l'he Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, '!'he Father plans the redeeming work. The Son carries it out objectively for man. The Spirit applies 1 See a beautiful quotation from Augustine in the' Speaker'1 Commentary,' in loo. • &e homily on eh. iii. 23, 24. 1 "Though God is invisible, he Jet ii not ool;y very near to WI, but mo.;y be in us, the Life of oiu lives " (Westcott). orr, IV 1-21.] 'l'HE FlRS'l' EPISTLE GENERAL 01<' JOHN. l.11