Christian Love # 1

Christian Love # 1

There is no subject of a practical nature, to which I could direct your attention, or more importance, either to yourselves or to the credit of your profession, and therefore to the well-being of others - than that which is contained in the present address; I mean, Christian love.

I refer you to the apostle's beautiful description and eloquent eulogium of love, in the thirteenth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

The occasion of this chapter was as follows. The Corinthian church was preeminent in the possession of spiritual gifts. This distinction furnished occasion for the indulgence of pride and vanity in the exercise of these supernatural powers, which called for the interference, admonition, and rebuke of apostolic authority. In the last verse of the preceding chapter, Paul admonishes the members of the church to "covet earnestly the best gifts;" those which were most for edification, such, for instance, as prophesying, that is, speaking of Divine truth under inspiration, and yet says he, "I show unto you a more excellent way;" by which he meant that he would set before them something more excellent, and far more to be coveted, than the most extraordinary miraculous endowments. This preeminent excellence, to which he refers, is the love which he describes in the chapter now alluded to.

Nothing can give us a more impressive or instructive lesson, than this exaltation of charity over miracles. What a proof is it that the apostle was neither impostor nor enthusiast; that Christianity is indeed from Heaven, since though it is accredited by supernatural powers and endowments, its Divine Author, and its inspired teachers, place these in an inferior rank to Christian virtue. Had Paul been either impostor or enthusiast, would he not have dwelt with more emphasis and inflation, as all impostors do, upon the marvelous and miraculous, and with less earnestness on that which is plain and practical? What an idea does it give us of the value of this transcendent disposition, to see it thus placed above the wonder-working powers of the first Christians - and what a notion does it convey to us of our own privileges, when we find ourselves invited and enabled to possess ourselves of an acquirement more to be coveted and esteemed, than the ability to speak all languages without study, and to heal all diseases without the practice or the study of medicine. Such is love!

In explanation of it, I would remark that charity signifies LOVE. In modern usage this term of charity, has become almost limited to the act of alms deeds; and in bestowing money or other things upon the poor, we speak of our giving charity. But in Scripture usage this is not its meaning - there it signifies love. In many places it is so rendered by our translators; and it is to a few others, they have perplexed the English reader, by not observing a uniform translation of the same original word.

But of what love does the apostle speak? Evidently not of love to God, as the exercises of it prove; nor of love to our brethren in Christ exclusively, because the acts of it, as described in the chapter, are as incumbent upon us in reference to the wicked, as to the righteous - it is love to all men, whether righteous or wicked; friends or foes. It is the same as love to our neighbor; it is in short, that benevolent disposition or kindness which consists in good-will to all creatures, and which leads us, as we have opportunity to promote their happiness. God is love - and this is His likeness. God loves all the universe with a love of benevolence - but his people are bound to love all, whether good or bad, so far as to be willing to promote their happiness; but they love the righteous with a special delight, on account of their relation and likeness to God; and thus add "to brotherly-kindness, love.

Such is love - not a mere natural amiableness of temper - not a soft, weakly, disposition. No! but a fruit of the Spirit. It is a benevolence, which is the result of regeneration; cherished by a sense of God's love to us in Christ Jesus; guided in its exercises by the Holy Scriptures; and directed, as its end, to the glory of God. It is that state of mind into which man is brought by the great change wrought in us by converting grace. Man, in his fallen state, is under the dominion of supreme selfishness. He cares for no other or higher object than self. His wife, children, friends, neighbors, are no otherwise regarded than as part of himself, or for the sake of himself. But to love, in the scriptural sense of the word, that is, a love for God's sake, his heart is a stranger. To feel the cold and icy selfishness of the heart, warming and melting under the glowing ardor of Divine and infinite benevolence, and a sense of interest awakened in the soul, and an impulse of beneficence given to it, which sends it beyond the circle of relatives, into the vast family of man; to be susceptible of emotions and affections which expand heart until it embraces the wide range of human beings; to be conscious of a sympathy with all our fellow creatures as capable of happiness, and an anxious desire to promote it; to realize within us a chord that vibrates in the tone of sorrow, to the grief of others, and in joy to the notes of their gladness; to know something of a disposition to be an instrument of benevolence and the means of communicating bliss; to be ever ready to weep with those who weep, and to rejoice with those who rejoice - in short, to know that our happiness is derived in great part from the happiness of others, and is increased by promoting it, and all this from imitation of the love of God to us - this is the love spoken of by the apostle in the chapter referred to, and which I now recommend.

The apostle has given us a description of the exercises of this noble and god-like principle. "Love is patient," and forbearing under injuries and annoyances, and does not revile, revenge, or retaliate. "Love is kind," not harsh or crude - but ever ready, willing, and pleased by looks, words, and actions, to promote the comfort of others. "Love does not envy." It does not pine and grieve at sight of another's superior possessions, fame, happiness, or piety - and dislike him on that account. "Love does not boast. Love is not proud." "Love seeks not her own." It is not easily provoked." "Love thinks no evil." Love rejoices not in iniquity - but rejoices in the truth. "Love bears all things. It does not divulge, proclaim, aggravate faults - but hides them as far as it can. "Love believe all things, hopes all things, endures all things," bears hardships, sustains labor, makes sacrifices in order to accomplish its purposes of good-will.

Whoever acts thus must promote happiness. He must bless all around him. All things smile in his presence. Beautiful description! Heavenly temper! Godlike mind! This is true religion, and this is to exist forever. "Love never fails," miracles shall cease, but love remains. Love goes with us to heaven. Faith shall be changed into sight; hope into fruition; prayer into praise; the helmet and shield, and the sword shall be laid aside, when the fight of faith is over. But love is the victor's trophy, his whole character that will be his honor and joy through eternity. Heaven is a region of love.

~John Angell James~

(continued with # 2)