Brotherly Love. A. D. 80.
13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
III. To infer that it is no wonder that good men are so served now:
Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you, v. 13. The serpentine nature
still continues in the world. The great serpent himself reigns as the God
of this world. Wonder not then that the serpentine world hates and hisses
at you who belong to that seed of the woman that is to bruise the serpent's
head.
Brotherly Love. A. D. 80.
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we
love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 15
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in him. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God,
because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives
for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother
have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth
the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word,
neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19 And hereby we know that
we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
The beloved apostle can scarcely touch upon the mention of sacred love,
but he must enlarge upon the enforcement of it, as here he does by divers
arguments and incentives thereto; as,
I. That it is a mark of our evangelical justification, of our transition
into a state of life: We know that we have passed from death to life, because
we love the brethren, v. 14. We are by nature children of wrath and heirs
of death. By the gospel (the gospel-covenant or promise) our state towards
another world is altered and changed. We pass from death to life, from
the guilt of death to the right of life; and this transition is made upon
our believing in the Lord Jesus: He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life, and he that believeth not hath the wrath of God abiding on him, John
iii. 36. Now this happy change of state we may come to be assured of: We
know that we have passed from death to life; we may know it by the evidences
of our faith in Christ, of which this love to our brethren is one, which
leads us to characterize this love that is such a mark of our justified
state. It is not a zeal for a party in the common religion, or an affection
for, or an affectation of, those who are of the same denomination and subordinate
sentiments with ourselves. But this love,
1. Supposes a general love to mankind: the law of Christian love, in
the Christian community, is founded on the catholic law, in the society
of mankind, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Mankind are to be
loved principally on these two accounts:-- (1.) As the excellent work of
God, made by him, and made in wonderful resemblance of him. The reason
that God assigns for the certain punishment of a murderer is a reason against
our hatred of any of the brethren of mankind, and consequently a reason
for our love to them: for in the image of God made he man, Gen. ix. 6.
(2.) As being, in some measure, beloved in Christ. The whole race of mankind--the
gens humana, should be considered as being, in distinction from fallen
angels, a redeemed nation; as having a divine Redeemer designed, prepared,
and given for them. So God loved the world, even this world, that he gave
his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but have everlasting life, John iii. 16. A world so beloved of God should
accordingly be loved by us. And this love will exert itself in earnest
desires, and prayers, and attempts, for the conversion and salvation of
the yet uncalled blinded world. My heart's desire and prayer for Israel
are that they may be saved. And then this love will include all due love
to enemies themselves.
2. It includes a peculiar love to the Christian society, to the catholic
church, and that for the sake of her head, as being his body, as being
redeemed, justified, and sanctified in and by him; and this love particularly
acts and operates towards those of the catholic church that we have opportunity
of being personally acquainted with or credibly informed of. They are not
so much loved for their own sakes as for the sake of God and Christ, who
have loved them. And it is God and Christ, or, if you will, the love of
God and grace of Christ, that are beloved and valued in them and towards
them. And so this is the issue of faith in Christ, and is thereupon a note
of our passage from death to life.
II. The hatred of our brethren is, on the contrary, a sign of our deadly
state, of our continuance under the legal sentence of death: He that loveth
not his brother (his brother in Christ) abideth in death, v. 14. He yet
stands under the curse and condemnation of the law. This the apostle argues
by a clear syllogism: "You know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding
in him; but he who hates his brother is a murderer; and therefore you cannot
but know that he who hates his brother hath not eternal life abiding in
him," v. 15. Or, he abideth in death, as it is expressed, v. 14, Whosoever
hateth his brother is a murderer; for hatred of the person is, so far as
it prevails, a hatred of life and welfare, and naturally tends to desire
the extinction of it. Cain hated, and then slew, his brother. Hatred will
shut up the bowels of compassion from the poor brethren, and will thereby
expose them to the sorrows of death. And it has appeared that hatred of
the brethren has in all ages dressed them up in ill names, odious characters,
and calumnies, and exposed them to persecution and the sword. No wonder,
then, that he who has a considerable acquaintance with the heart of man,
or is taught by him who fully knows it, who knows the natural tendency
and issue of vile and violent passions, and knows withal the fulness of
the divine law, declares him who hates his brother to be a murderer. Now
he who by the frame and disposition of his heart is a murderer cannot have
eternal life abiding in him; for he who is such must needs be carnally-minded,
and to be carnally-minded is death, Rom. viii. 6. The apostle, by the expression
of having eternal life abiding in us, may seem to mean the possession of
an internal principle of endless life, according to that of the Saviour,
Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
shall never be totally destitute thereof; but the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life,
John iv. 14. And thereupon some may be apt to surmise that the passing
from death to life (v. 14) does not signify the relative change made in
our justification of life, but the real change made in the regeneration
to life; and accordingly that the abiding in death mentioned v. 14 is continuance
in spiritual death, as it is usually called, or abiding in the corrupt
deadly temper of nature. But as these passages more naturally denote the
state of the person, whether adjudged to life or death, so the relative
transition from death to life may well be proved or disproved by the possession
or non-possession of the inward principle of eternal life, since washing
from the guilt of sin is inseparably united with washing from the filth
and power of sin. But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are
justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God,
1 Cor. vi. 11.
III. The example of God and Christ should inflame our hearts with this
holy love: Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his
life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, v. 16.
The great God has given his Son to the death for us. But since this apostle
has declared that the Word was God, and that he became flesh for us, I
see not why we may not interpret this of God the Word. Here is the love
of God himself, of him who in his own person is God, though not the Father,
that he assumed a life, that he might lay it down for us! Here is the condescension,
the miracle, the mystery of divine love, that God would redeem the church
with his own blood! Surely we should love those whom God hath loved, and
so loved; and we shall certainly do so if we have any love for God.
IV. The apostle, having proposed this flaming constraining example of
love, and motive to it, proceeds to show us what should be the temper and
effect of this our Christian love. And, 1. It must be, in the highest degree,
so fervent as to make us willing to suffer even to death for the good of
the church, for the safety and salvation of the dear brethren: And we ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren (v. 16), either in our ministrations
and services to them (yea, and if I be offered upon the service and sacrifice
of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all--I shall congratulate your
felicity, Phil. ii. 17), or in exposing ourselves to hazards, when called
thereto, for the safety and preservation of those that are more serviceable
to the glory of God and the edification of the church than we can be. Who
have for my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only I give thanks,
but also all the churches of the Gentiles, Rom. xvi. 4. How mortified should
the Christian be to this life! How prepared to part with it! And how well
assured of a better! 2. It must be, in the next degree, compassionate,
liberal, and communicative to the necessities of the brethren: For whoso
hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up
his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
v. 17. It pleases God that some of the Christian brethren should be poor,
for the exercise of the charity and love of those that are rich. And it
pleases the same God to give to some of the Christian brethren this world's
good, that they may exercise their grace in communicating to the poor saints.
And those who have this world's good must love a good God more, and their
good brethren more, and be ready to distribute it for their sakes. It appears
here that this love to the brethren is founded upon love to God, in that
it is here called so by the apostle: How dwelleth the love of God in him?
This love to the brethren is love to God in them; and where there is none
of this love to them there is no true love to God at all. 3. I was going
to intimate the third and lowest degree in the next verse; but the apostle
has prevented me, by intimating that this last charitable communicative
love, in persons of ability, is the lowest that can consist with the love
of God. But there may be other fruits of this love; and therefore the apostle
desires that in all it should be unfeigned and operative, as circumstances
will allow: My little children (my dear children in Christ), let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth, v. 18. Compliments
and flatteries become not Christians; but the sincere expressions of sacred
affection, and the services or labours of love, do. Then,
V. This love will evince our sincerity in religion, and give us hope
towards God: And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure
our hearts before him, v. 19. It is a great happiness to be assured of
our integrity in religion. Those that are so assured may have holy boldness
or confidence towards God; they may appeal to him from the censures and
condemnation of the world. The way to arrive at the knowledge of our own
truth and uprightness in Christianity, and to secure our inward peace,
is to abound in love and in the works of love towards the Christian brethren.
The Testimony of Conscience. A. D. 80.
20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and
knoweth all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have
we confidence toward God. 22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him,
because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing
in his sight.
The apostle, having intimated that there may be, even among us, such
a privilege as an assurance or sound persuasion of heart towards God, proceeds
here,
I. To establish the court of conscience, and to assert the authority
of it: For, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and
knoweth all things, v. 20. Our heart here is our self-reflecting judicial
power, that noble excellent ability whereby we can take cognizance of ourselves,
of our spirits, our dispositions, and actions, and accordingly pass a judgment
upon our state towards God; and so it is the same with conscience, or the
power of moral self-consciousness. This power can act as witness, judge,
and executioner of judgment; it either accuses or excuses, condemns or
justifies; it is set and placed in this office by God himself: the spirit
of man, thus capacitated and empowered, is the candle of the Lord, a luminary
lighted and set up by the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly,
taking into scrutiny and viewing the penetralia--the private recesses and
secret transactions of the inner man, Prov. xx. 27. Conscience is God's
vicegerent, calls the court in his name, and acts for him. The answer of
a good conscience towards God, 1 Pet. iii. 21. God is chief Judge of the
court: If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart, superior
to our heart and conscience in power and judgment; hence the act and judgment
of the court are the act and judgment of God; as, 1. If conscience condemn
us, God does so too: For, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than
our heart, and knoweth all things, v. 20. God is a greater witness than
our conscience, and knoweth more against us than it does: he knoweth all
things; he is a greater Judge than conscience; for, as he is supreme, so
his judgment shall stand, and shall be fully and finally executed. This
seems to be the design of another apostle when he says, For I know nothing
by myself, that is, in the case wherein I am censured by some. "I am not
conscious of any guile, or allowed unfaithfulness, in my stewardship and
ministry. Yet I am hereby justified; it is not by my own conscience that
I must ultimately stand or fall; the justification or justifying sentence
of my conscience, or self-consciousness, will not determine the controversy
between you and me; as you do not appeal to its sentence, so neither will
you be determined by its decision; but he that judgeth me (supremely and
finally judgeth me), and by whose judgment you and I must be determined,
is the Lord," 1 Cor. iv. 4. Or, 2. If conscience acquit us, God does so
too: Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward
God (v. 21), then have we assurance that he accepts us now, and will acquit
us in the great day of account. But, possibly, some presumptuous soul may
here say, "I am glad of this; my heart does not condemn me, and therefore
I may conclude God does not." As, on the contrary, upon the foregoing verse,
some pious trembling soul will be ready to cry out, "God forbid! My heart
or conscience condemns me, and must I then infallibly expect the condemnation
of God?" But let such know that the errors of the witness are not here
reckoned as the acts of the court; ignorance, error, prejudice, partiality,
and presumption, may be said to be faults of the officers of the court,
or of the attendants of the judge (as the mind, the will, appetite, passion,
sensual disposition, or disordered brain), or of the jury, who give a false
verdict, not of the judge itself; conscience--syneidesis, is properly self-consciousness.
Acts of ignorance and error are not acts of self-consciousness, but of
some mistaken power; and the court of conscience is here described in its
process, according to the original constitution of it by God himself, according
to which process what is bound in conscience is bound in heaven; let conscience
therefore be heard, be well-informed, and diligently attended to.
II. To indicate the privilege of those who have a good conscience towards
God. They have interest in heaven and in the court above; their suits are
heard there: And whatsoever we ask we receive of him, v. 22. It is supposed
that the petitioners do not desire, or do not intend to desire, any thing
that is contrary to the honour and glory of the court or to their own intended
spiritual good, and then they may depend upon receiving the good things
they ask for; and this supposition may well be made concerning the petitioners,
or they may well be supposed to receive the good things they ask for, considering
their qualification and practice: Because we keep his commandments, and
do those things that are pleasing in his sight, v. 22. Obedient souls are
prepared for blessings, and they have promise of audience; those who commit
things displeasing to God cannot expect that he should please them in hearing
and answering their prayers, Ps. lxvi. 18; Prov. xxviii. 9.
God's Commandments. A. D. 80.
23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name
of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.
And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given
us.
The apostle, having mentioned keeping the commandments, and pleasing
God, as the qualification of effectual petitioners in and with Heaven,
here suitably proceeds,
I. To represent to us what those commandments primarily and summarily
are; they are comprehended in this double one: And this is his commandment,
That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one
another, as he gave us commandment, v. 23. To believe on the name of his
Son Jesus Christ is, 1. To discern what he is, according to his name, to
have an intellectual view of his person and office, as the Son of God,
and the anointed Saviour of the world. That every one that seeth the Son,
and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, John vi. 40. 2. To approve
him in judgment and conscience, in conviction and consciousness of our
case, as one wisely and wonderfully prepared and adapted for the whole
work of eternal salvation. 3. To consent to him, and acquiesce in him,
as our Redeemer and recoverer unto God. 4. To trust to him, and rely upon
him, for the full and final discharge of his saving office. Those that
know thy name will put their trust in thee, Ps. ix. 10. I know whom I have
believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day, 2 Tim. i. 12. This faith is a needful
requisite to those who would be prevalent petitioners with God, because
it is by the Son that we must come to the Father; through his grace and
righteousness our persons must be accepted or ingratiated with the Father
(Eph. i. 6), through his purchase all our desired blessings must come,
and through his intercession our prayers must be heard and answered. This
is the first part of the commandment that must be observed by acceptable
worshippers; the second is that we love one another, as he gave us commandment,
v. 23. The command of Christ should be continually before our eyes. Christian
love must possess our soul when we go to God in prayer. To this end we
must remember that our Lord obliges us, (1.) To forgive those who offend
us (Matt. vi. 14), and, (2.) To reconcile ourselves to those whom we have
offended, Matt. v. 23, 24. As good-will to men was proclaimed from heaven,
so good-will to men, and particularly to the brethren, must be carried
in the hearts of those who go to God and heaven.
II. To represent to us the blessedness of obedience to these commands.
The obedient enjoy communion with God: And he that keepeth his commandments,
and particularly those of faith and love, dwelleth in him, and he in him,
v. 24. We dwell in God by a happy relation to him, and spiritual union
with him, through his Son, and by a holy converse with him; and God dwells
in us by his word, and our faith fixed on him, and by the operations of
his Spirit. Then there occurs the trial of his divine inhabitation: And
hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given
us (v. 24), by the sacred disposition and frame of soul that he hath conferred
upon us, which being a spirit of faith in God and Christ, and of love to
God and man, appears to be of God.
