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THE KING’S BUSINESS
love. See chapter 3 :14. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” Again, verses 18, 19: “ My little chil dren, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed, and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.” Love. But you notice that these are only two passages and this subject of love is found from chapter 2:7 to 3 :24. That is the second main division of the Epistle. Negatively, it is, “ Love not the world” ; positively, “ Love the brother1 hood.” We will look at something- about the world to-morrow. Now we are concerned with this thought,of positive love. * May I ask you to notice that it is not “ brotherly love,” but “ brother- love-” ? “ Brotherly love,” as the word suggests, is brother-like love;.but the New Testament teaches us more than that. We are not to love as though we were brethren; we are to love be cause we are brethren. That is why I distinguish between “ brotherly love,” which is a little unfortunate in- the translation in our English version, and “ brother-love.” Now for a moment or two on this. Our Lord, on the eve of His crucifix ion, said, ‘A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one an other, as I have loved you.” . Wherein lay the newness? Some say in the standard, “ As I have loved you.” Well, they had had the highest stand ard long before then. “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” That is as high as we can go. “ Oh,” some say, “ it was the love of the. stranger,” But they had love of the stranger; they had universal, patri otic, family love, and with one ex ception, every kind of love, before our Lord said, “ A new commandment I give unto you.” If you will look at the two verses where Christ refers to the new. commandment, you will
know that we know Him, and the second that we shall know that we are in Him. This is what I mean by a definite, tangible, objective proof of assurance . M-obedience. Negatively, as you will notice, sin is to be avoided; positively, righteousness is to be followed. This section dealing with obedience covers chapter 1 :5 to chapter 2 :6. That is the first main division of the Epistle. As you study it you will see, that its primary thought is obedience, first negatively, and then positively. Let us dwell upon this for a mo ment, Faithfulness gives us the wit ness; and obedience is, therefore, the organ, the proof of knowledge. A creed is not enough for assurance, be cause a creed might conceivably be false. Nor are feelings enough, be cause feelings are very variable, But faithfulness, if it be constant, will al ways be a ground and proof of assur ance. Some obedience, some assur ance ; full obedience, full assurance. Here you see that, quite apart from any ideas, or ideals, or feeling or emo tions, or anything subjective, the plain, definite requirement of obedi ence is set before us as one of the proofs of knowledge. “Hereby we do know that we know ,Him.” “Hereby know we that we are in Him.” When you think of it. this is ex actly true to life. Is it not the case that when you and I do something that we know is our duty, there springs up instinctively in our hearts the satisfaction, the consciousness, that all is right—the child with the father, the servant with the master, the friend with the friend? Obedi ence is invariably, by that psychologi cal law, the organ and the proof of knowledge, So do not let us worry ourselves about our emotions, or our feelings, or even our beliefs. O bey , and in the obedience will come the assurance. 2. The second of these proofs is
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