King's Business - 1941-07

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T H B K I N G ’ S' B U S I N E S S

July, IM I

sense in which we might speak of an - engine or any other piece of machinery: I f ’ft is properly made, it ought to run. While no one has ever seen God, the manifestation of what He is will be seen as love bears its proper fruit in the Christian. This is also true “be­ cause he hath given us of his Spirit” (V. 13). Love bears its testimony to the world (v. 14), even though the world rejects thè witness. HI. T he B oldness of L ove (15-21) The love of God in thè believer leads to boldness in'confession (vs. 15,16)— ' confession that Christ is the Son of God, not merely that He was or that He will be, though both are true. Of course this testimony involves confession of His death and resurrection. Verse 17 begins: “Herein is our love made perfect.” That is, God’s love is perfected Jn the work of Christ oh our behalf. A better rendering'* of verse 19 is: “We love, because he first loved us” (R, V.),-rather than: “We love him, be­ cause he first loved us.” The latter fact is certainly true, but it is the other meaning which more nearly expresses the thought of the passage under con­ sideration. Won by the love of Christ, the Chris­ tian is not to be afraid in the day of judgment (v. 17), because his union with Christ has settled forever the sin ques­ tion (though he may be ashamed at that time because of the poor quality of his servìcè for the One who saved him by His grace). Finally, ini. the believer’s relation to others and to God, love determines what his true heart attitude is (vs. 20,21). Points and Problems 1. “ Marvel not, my brethren, If the world hate you” (1 John 3:13). Unre­ generated humanity is. hot essentially good, as some declare. Hatred, not love, is its basic motive. There are several reasons: First, the world is under the power of its great prince, the devil, and he is a murderer at heart. His entire world-system is based on hatred, not love. Second, love is of God, and only those bom of God can know anything about love. Third, the world hated Christ without a- cause, and therefore it is no marvel that the world should hate those’ who believe and trust Him. 2. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (v. 14). Here we should read

with care. John does not say. that by loving each other we can pass from death to life, but rather that by bur love for the brethren we may know that we have passed from death to Ufe. ;He Is not telling how to be saved; but how we may know that we have been saved. 3. “For love Is of God” (4:17). Here we have set forth the absolute soiircp of love. It, Is “of [ek] God,” that is, out Of God. Because this is so, love can never originate in sinful and unregenerated humanity. Before we can know this love, or manifest it in our own Jiyes, It must first come down to us from above. In ourselves we have no capacity for love. Therefore, John writes, “Every one that loveth is bom of God,” which means that whenever we find a person manifesting the quality of love we are to understand that such a person has been bom of God and is a member of His family. For only God’s children share in.Ttis nature. 4. “ God Is love” (4:8,‘ 16). This is one of several grand and unfathomable defi­ nitions of the nature of God. Here ftre four of them: Metaphysically, “God Is spirit” (John 4:24, R. V. margin). Intellectually, “God is light” (1 John 1:5). Morally, “God is love” (1 John 4:16). Judicially, “God is . . . fire” (Heb. 12:29). The terms used, of course, are always inadequate to express the entire content of the definitions. “God is light,” for example, is moral as well as intellectual. And “ God is love” is social as well as moral. Perhaps it would be better to speak of these four statements as great affirmations r a t h e r .than definitions. They are best understood through what God does. Golden Text Illustration 1 J ohn 3:18 Bishop William A. Quayle once said, “What is celestial service? Loving. A woman was sitting beside her sick hus­ band. She was looking at him as he lay upon his bed, and he said in his feeble voice, ‘What are you doing ?’ “ She said, ‘Just loving you.’ “When God looks at us and says, ‘What are you doing?’ please God, our answer shall be, ‘Just loving You.’ .That Is service. In these materialistic days, so full of bustle and hustle and. push, let us never forget the priceless yalue of cultivating the habit of ‘just loving’ our heavenly Father.’’—1,001 Illustra­ tions for Pulpit and Platform, by Webb. The Saviour of the World 1 J ohn 4:7-21 MEMORY VERSE: "The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14). APPROACH: A little girl was lost in the woods. She had enjoyed the flowers and ferns, and the sound of the babbling

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