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Genuine Christian Love For One Another

"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments."   — 1 John 5:2

Christian love, the very foundation of Christian motive. The phrase however, has blended into the common Christian language and has all but lost its scriptural meaning. In I Corinthians chapter 13, we find the biblical definition of Love, but it's John who fine tunes the real meaning of what Christian love is. "whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected." 1 John 2:5

Many years ago my wife and I attended a church where the people seemed so friendly, always hugging and smiling and preaching the love of God, yet we were not there long until we realized that they were nothing more than a bunch of back-stabbing, gossiping hypocrites with absolutely no knowledge of what the love of God really is.

I invited the head Deacon to our home (we had no pastor at the time) and asked him what the biblical definition of God's love was. For a Deacon, he had surprisingly little knowledge of God's Word and after muttering around, was unable to give me a biblical answer. So I opened my Bible to 1 John 5:2,3 and began to read. "By this we know", John said, "that we love the children of God" (Christians), "when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments."

I said, "we talk a lot about the love of God in church and embrace one another in love, but it is carnal love". The Deacon said, "what do you mean by that?" I said, "dear brother, the love of God is kind, longsuffering, does not envy, nor is prideful. How can we embrace our brother in the love of God then turn on him with malice, envy or unkindness? Yet our church is filled with this evil, this is nothing more than the love of the world and of self."

Unfortunately, this Deacon proved my point. Rather than embracing the Word of God, he became angry and asked my wife and I not to return to the church if we could not show any more love than to criticize its good people. How ironic!

As with all things spiritual, God's love is altogether different than man's love. The seat of man's love is selfishness, where as God's love is selflessness, "For God so loved... that He gave...". This is the love God desires for us to have.

Matthew 25:35-36 says, "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." The seat of this love is selflessness, this is the love of God. To love our neighbor as ourselves.

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment."

Jesus went on to say that the second commandment was to "love our neighbor as thyself." So important and so powerful are these two commandments that Jesus sealed it with this truth, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." What a statement! If you want to know why the Church has so little power, it's because she has so little love. She spends millions on her mega churches of comfort and luxury while millions of unreached souls step into a Christ less eternity. She is selfish, but claims to love God.

It is time for the true Church to return to her roots of Biblical values and be bound together with the cords of true love, then once more the Church will walk in power and in the grace of the living God.

—  Randy Munter   Editor and Webmaster

True Christian Love
by Arthur W. Pink

Love is the Queen of the Christian graces. It is a holy disposition given to us when we are born again by God. It is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. True spiritual love is characterized by meekness and gentleness, yet it is vastly superior to the courtesies and kindnesses of the flesh.

We must be careful not to confuse human sentimentality, carnal pleasantries, human amiability and affability with true spiritual love. The love God commands, first to Himself and then to others, is not human love. It is not the indulgent, self-seeking love which is in us by nature. If we indulgently allow our children to grow up with little or, no Scriptural discipline, Proverbs plainly says we do not love them, regardless of the human sentimentality and affection we may feel for them. Love is not a sentimental pampering of one another with a loose indifference as to our walk and obedience before the Lord. Glossing over one another's faults to ingratiate ourselves in their esteem is not spiritual love.

The true nature of Christian love is a righteous principle which seeks the highest good of others. It is a powerful desire to promote their welfare. The exercise of love is to be in strict conformity to the revealed will of God. We must love in the truth. Love among the brethren is far more than an agreeable society where views are the same. It is loving them for what we see of Christ in them, loving them for Christ's sake.

The Lord Jesus Himself is our example. He was not only thoughtful, gentle, self-sacrificing and patient, but He also corrected His mother, used a whip in the Temple, Severely scolded His doubting disciples, and denounced hypocrites. True spiritual love is above all faithful to God and uncompromising towards all that is evil. We cannot declare, 'Peace and Safety' when in reality there is spiritual decay and ruin!

True spiritual love is very difficult to exercise because it is not our natural love. By nature we would rather love sentimentally and engender good feelings. Also many times true spiritual love is not received in love, but is hated as the Pharisees hated it. We must pray that God will fill us with His love and enable us to exercise it without dissimulation toward all.

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