_THE INCARNATION AND THE INNER LIFE_ ‘Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.’ 1 John 4:2 Only too commonly the Incarnation is regarded as a doctrine which faith must accept, but which, except in its issues and results, has no immediate connection with the t... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE TRIUMPH OF GREATNESS_ ‘Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.’ 1 John 4:4 St. John points out two currents in the stream of humanity, and he points out that there is a motive power which is controlling in each case the apparently irresponsible movements of the shifting t... [ Continue Reading ]
_‘LOVE IS OF GOD’_ ‘Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God.’ 1 John 4:7 (R.V.) This section of the Epistle, 1 John 4:7, contains one of those profound truths which are so often expressible in simple words, but which are... [ Continue Reading ]
_‘GOD IS LOVE’_ ‘God is love.’ 1 John 4:8 This Epistle was an Epistle General, that is, it was not directed to any local Church. St. John was now a very old man. St. Peter, St. James, and St. Paul had all gone ‘to be with Christ,’ and St. John survived them all. The beginning of the Epistle is mu... [ Continue Reading ]
_LOVE MANIFESTED_ ‘In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.’ 1 John 4:9 Of the reality of God’s love St. John had no doubt; neither need we have any, though some do doubt it, thinking that God’s j... [ Continue Reading ]
_REFLECTED LOVE_ ‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.’ 1 John 4:11 Thus St. John has summed up his argument, and this is ‘the conclusion of the whole matter.’ Whom are we to ‘love’? ‘One another.’ St. John is not writing about family affections, or private friendships... [ Continue Reading ]
_LOVE’S CROWN_ ‘God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.’ 1 John 4:16 It is a distinction between Christians and all others, that whereas the heathen and unbelieving world knows not or heeds not the Gospel, they who are Christ’s know and believe the love of God,... [ Continue Reading ]
_FEAR AND ITS ANTIDOTE_ ‘Happy is the man that feareth alway.’ ‘Perfect love casteth out fear.’ Proverbs 28:14 (with 1 John 4:18). Fear has a place in the Gospel, may we but find it. The object of fear may be either a thing or a person. I. WE FEAR A THING WHICH, BEING POSSIBLE, IS ALSO UNDESIRA... [ Continue Reading ]
_LOVE AND FEAR_ ‘Perfect love casteth out fear.’ 1 John 4:18 This principle, that ‘perfect love casteth out fear,’ is a universal principle, and belongs to all human things. It is shown most completely in religious matters; but it is also true that, wherever love rules, there fear has no place; t... [ Continue Reading ]
_GOD’S LOVE AND MAN’S RESPONSE_ ‘We love Him, because He first loved us.’ 1 John 4:19 God’s love and man’s response—that is the meaning of our life as Christians. And it is God’s love, the kindness of God our Saviour, that comes first. I. WE ARE SURROUNDED, ENWRAPPED IN GOD’S LOVE.—It is so clos... [ Continue Reading ]
_LOVE TO MEN_ ‘He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God Whom he hath not seen?’ 1 John 4:20 We cannot love Him Whom we do not realise, and to realise the great invisible Influence in which we live and move and have our being, to realise the Person Who is watching over... [ Continue Reading ]
_GOD’S LOVE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL_ ‘And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.’ 1 John 4:21 It does not need, in order to call’s God’s attention, that a whole nation or an entire Church should turn from sin and set itself to serve Almighty God. There is... [ Continue Reading ]