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 Bro.
Turner:
What
is the “law of love”? We have a brother who uses this
expression to justify a compromising attitude toward anything he
wants to do. W.Va
Reply:
I
suggest you read 1 Jn. 4:7-f. with great care. God IS love —
the epitome of love, summarizing its very essence — the
perfect source, example and motivator of love.
So
absolutely true is this principle, that John says, “everyone
that loveth is begotten of God—” i.e., is God—like,
figuratively partakes of the genetic makeup of God, has His
characteristics. This is the same “child of” concept seen in
Jn. 8:39 -f, where Jews were told, “If ye were Abraham’s
children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” (Cf. Matt. 5:45)
We thus “know” God — i.e., grasp the idea of God, “perceive”
God, move on the same wave-length. With God so much the essence
of love, how can one claim to be “of God” who does not love?
(It seems to me it is this spirit of love referred to in vs.
13.)
The
“love” under consideration is not man’s concept of love,
but a reflection of God’s love — hence must be confined to
that type of love which God manifested. (“Herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent His Son to be
the propitiation for our sins.”) If God SO (in this manner)
loved us, we ALSO ought to love one another. Our love, to be “of
God”, must be like that which God demonstrates in His dealings
with man, through Christ. We are presumptuous indeed to think we
can ignore the examples of God’s love as seen in
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Christ, and the revealed will of God;
and substitute our own shallow, short-sighted, and self-serving
concept of “love” and its fruits.
God’s
love did not keep Him from condemning man to death for his sins.
But it caused Him to give His Son so that those who obey Him
might be forgiven. (Heb. 5:9) (Those evil, on whom God sends
material blessings, will go to Hell, except they repent. Isn’t
it odd that those who use Matt. 5:44-f, to excuse sin, never
seem to think of the sinner’s doom, and make sacrificial
efforts to turn them to Christ.)
Did
Paul not love those brethren whom he refused to feed? (2
Thes. 3:6-15) I believe he loved them too much to allow their
slothfulness to go unnoticed, and uncorrected. He loved them
with the kind of love that comes from the heavenly Father.
Did
Paul restrict the burden of the church to widows indeed (1 Tim.
5:16) because he had no concern for the younger widow; or
because he had more concern for the divinely authorized
work of the church, and more concern that the younger
widows function in their God-given responsibilities?
The
“law of love” is not an emotionally orientated standard of
conduct, originating in the mind of man. It is the result of man
imbibing the manifested and demonstrated spirit of
God, knowing God’s will, and being moved to act toward his
fellow-man as God has acted toward His creatures. “Am I
therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”
(Gal. 4:)
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