The Pulpit Commentary — 1 John — Section 138

in fellowship with God? Do we form plans for advancing the glory of God? Docs love, too, operate toward our brethren? Have we a real interest In them, rejoicing with them when they rejoice, and weeping with them when they weep? Does our love operate toward those who are not yet brethren, leading us to make sacrifices for them, _and to form plans f?r their being brought into the fold of the Redeemer? Dut there 1s also an expl1mat10n. "We love, because ho first loved us." What is the origin of love in ne? It is God exercising influence over us; but in what way? Not by the manifestations of bis power, not by the manifestations of his wisdom, not by the manifestations of bis righteousness; but by the manifestations of his love. Like produces like. God loved us before we had tl1e opportunity of lovin", He loved us in creati11g us, in putting it into the hearts of parents to care for us in infancy and child- hood. He thus anticipated us with goodness. And then he was ready with a scheme of mercy for our coming into the world. We arc not long in the world before we learn that we have got evil hearts, that we are in the midst of sin and misery; and some- times the prospect seems dreary enough. But, on the other hand, it is true that God has made the world warm for our coming into it. There is love in it as well as sin; and thus God has been beforehand with us. He did not wait until we sinners returned to him. That was impossible by an act of our own will, even by an act of the Divine will, as sheer foroe. It needed some powerful influence to bear upon our hearts; and that was found in the anticipative love of God in redemption. It is the greater love that er,er comes first. Two persons have a quarrel. The one comes to the other, and desires a reconciliation ; the other is overcome, and loves in return. That was the greater love which took the initiative, and broke down the alienation. So God's love is the greater, for he speaks the first word of reconciliation. And what makes it all the greater is that the fault was entirely on our side. We had wronged him ; he regarded our sin with the utmost displeasure; and yet he loved us, The love with which he anticipated as was greater than any of which we were capable; great as his own nature. That love has received ample manifestation. There was once a poor Man in this world. He was brought up in an insignificant little town. He received no education but what that little town could alford him. He at first worked as a carpenter, eating his bread in the sweat of bis brow. Then he began to work miracles as with Divine power, and to teach u with Divine wisdom. His public career was, however, cut short; for men did not like his teaching, and plotted his death. He was crucified as a malefactor at the age of thirty-three. This poor Man was none other than the Son of God. What was the meaning of this humiliation? It was anticipa- tive love. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Of this love we can give no account, no explanation; it is a mystery, before which we must bow. But our love is capable of explanation. "We love, because he first loved us." Let the pressure of anticipative love upon us be evermore felt. 4. Love that is operative rises from the seen to the unseen. " If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he bath seen, cannot love God whom he bath not seen. And this command- ment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." It is declared in the most emphatic manner that love to God cannot exist apart from love to our brother, on the ground that there is a close connection between loving the seen and loviog the unseen, and further, on the ground that this connection is embodied in a positive Divine co=and.. Ajirst noticeable thing is that love should form the subject ef a command. It seems strange that we should be commanded to love, Love is supposed to have a freedom, an immunity of its own. And yet. it must be with the affections as with other parts of our nature. They must be placed under government and discipline. There must, in the first iru;tance, be the voice of God, the voice of conscience, authoritatively prescribing their course, directing them to proper objects, and keeping them in just harmony. This would be necessary, even if the affections were naturally pure. The authority of conscience would need to be exercised over them in order to give them character. It is, therefore, all the more necessary, seeing their most tine gold has become changed. They are not naturally Christian. Christ is the very last Person round whom they would centre. For "he hath no form nor comelineas; and when we shall eee him, there ie no beauty that we should desire ~im." And how hard it is to Christianize the affections, to give them the genuine, unm1stak- on 1v. 1-21.] THE FiRST EPISTLE GENEitAL OF JOHN. 125